Posted Thu, Apr 26, 11:30 a.m.

Do you have an advance on the July 1 OFM release for April 2012? Your word "completions," clarifies you reference a construction boom. And thank you for pointing out the age old way of economizing is to increase household sizes, which makes the possibility of overbuilding even stronger. If you ...

Posted Thu, Apr 26, 11:15 a.m.

Tony Robinson has a good name for the problem—far, far too many phony messiahs. From what I have been told since a toddler, the Second Coming will be bedlam, whichever party is in power. In that context, the juxaposition of the ad from Fisher at the bottom of this piece ...

Posted Thu, Apr 26, 1:11 a.m.

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/pop/april1/poptrends.pdf Between April 1, 2010 and April 1, 2011 Seattle gained 3400 people and 2419 housing units, or 3/4 of a new housing unit per new person or 1.4 housing units per 2 person household. Tables 7 & 8. Less ready at hand is the percent of the new people ...

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 10:51 p.m.

"Why is it presumed to be ‘green’ or even okay to tear down sound buildings, old and stout, and send all that perfectly good material to the landfill? The cost to the environment of manufacturing, mining, and deforesting for new replacement materials is enormous and surely won’t be justified by ...

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 9:56 p.m.

Knute, it's the hermit crab who lives in borrowed quarters that once defined Seattle at its affordable, one-of-kind best. Why the connection between being a hermit and living in borrowed quarters, I can not say—although a homeless tendency today is to make-do, rather than accept institutionalized shelter. At any rate, ...

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 9:07 p.m.

That makes two of us, mhays. Could you enlighten me on "the current boom" and how it is that we need more capacity to accommodate it ASAP. At least that is what I think you meant in the post you began with P.S.

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 12:32 p.m.

mhays, you choose to slight the great housing boom and its bust. I can not say if this is intentional, only that you often make similar mistakes. True, not many citizens caught the video of the Quality Growth Alliance coaching the City and County Councils: "Don't just accommodate growth, make ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 6:56 p.m.

"Because rubber-wheeled trolleys can climb steeper hills than steel-wheeled streetcars," The story might well have gone on to say "than diesel buses too." Any #2 rider up Queen Anne Hill's Counter Balance can tell you about the difference between the line's normal rubber-tired trolley and an abnormal diesel—the latter makes ...

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 7:53 p.m.

Ammons is right this is a very interesting conversation! I first must confess to being an ungrateful winner of a Crosscut drawing some time ago that supplied us with an early Kindle used exactly twice. Once to download a sample free book from Amazon and once to order a ebook ...

Posted Wed, Apr 18, 11:59 a.m.

"calling upon our enthusiasm for other people, for our neighbors" Roger may be new to Seattle but Doublethink is sure not: 'Kids' Place, Emerald City, Sound Transit, Green Factor, Climate Action Now, Quality Growth Alliance, Reality Check, as well as the more generic New World Order, job security, and affordable ...

Posted Mon, Apr 16, 12:46 p.m.

"they aren't calling for "bipartisan centrism" Bipartisan, yes, centrism, only if that is the outcome of the opening of minds. As for how long that would take, refusal by even its most courteous to think beyond today's heavy-duty partisanship does not bode well at all. FWIW, the guy in the ...

Posted Sun, Apr 15, 2:08 p.m.

Speaking of paying attention to political events and taking care to understand commenter's points, I would also like to reiterate how much more one gets out of both by setting the parties aside or, if going naked is too scary, then focusing on the similarity of purpose that each party's ...

Posted Sat, Apr 14, 12:26 p.m.

Harris, reading this part with some presence of mind, might have saved you the fame of so elegantly personifying it: "Even worse, 'Those on the other side of the line are assumed to be unworthy of respect or hearing, and are in fact to be regarded as a huge problem.' ...

Posted Thu, Apr 12, 12:12 p.m.

RSN: Thanks for trying, but that is clear as mud. I know what does not work. What I need to know is exactly what kind of "new taxing districts" would mimic Idaho's and in your opinion be "the only way TIF would work in Wa state."

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 2:17 p.m.

RSN: As in Transportation Benefit Districts? See Chapter 36.73.RCW: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=36.73&full;=true See also: http://publicola.com/2012/04/10/transit-bill-looks-dead-in-final-days-of-special-session/

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 1:02 p.m.

Speaking of enlightenment for coming to public judgment, this might offer better clues and dialogue: " Darrin Nordahl and Jarrett Walker: Perspectives on Public Transit Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Authors Darrin Nordahl and Jarrett Walker discuss public transit ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 12:02 p.m.

Valdez writes:"The point of investing in massive transit infrastructure should be to subsidize what people are already having to do: drive long distances between the places they want and need to be. Instead the goal of spending tax dollars on rail is building a future when the things people want ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 2:36 p.m.

Hyper-regulated, as in giving density away in exchange for "urban amenities," prescribes the problem—new housing too expensive for a whole segment of our population and old housing torn down to make way for the new. Far-off, gold plated transportation visions, prescribes the consequences—spewing far more pollutants into the atmosphere than ...

Posted Fri, Mar 30, 7:04 p.m.

Go Paul! (And Mark)

Posted Fri, Mar 30, 12:55 p.m.

The sometimes insightful Walter Russell Mead: "Cheap tricks might work to befuddle lazy reporters (or allow the ideologically committed to collude in the deception of readers for the greater good) but they won’t pay the bills or stop the inexorable rise in health costs. ... In the real world it ...

Posted Thu, Mar 29, 8:43 p.m.

"Today, elected officials recite the environmental creed all politicians recite, but then, often, will make decisions that benefit the people who are already living here at the expense of people new to the region" "People already here" like those gullible heathens we pushed aside a couple of centuries ago because ...

Posted Thu, Mar 29, 11:44 a.m.

Ironic with swiftylazer's continued attack on BlueLight before him, that Nelson elects to make authors the only protected class. "Poot little blue light. Always ready to be the "concerned citizen" and fight the big boys. So glad we have poor little blue light to stand against the horrors of the ...

Posted Mon, Mar 19, 1:45 p.m.

Thanks for the background on what compelled all the normally sane Lower Queen Anne homeowners to install (unused) locks on the doors of all their extra rooms (and some not so extra), which as awareness of Fair mania faded must have puzzled many a new owner.

Posted Fri, Mar 16, 1:33 p.m.

Multiple deployments alone should tell us we've bit off far more than we can chew. It does not because "people" are neoliberal units of production to the crony capitalists who openly manage our affairs. A cleaned-up, yet telling version of its inroads here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/neoliberalism-and-higher-education/ The opposition here: http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/index.php Their review ...

Posted Thu, Mar 15, 12:39 p.m.

"Moving forward, we should design and regulate in a way that the inadvertence described here becomes more purposeful, enabling sustainable reuse on a broader scale. Examples include zoning and building code provisions that anticipate land assembly — not property-by-property approaches — and that allow for convertible uses in buildings, a ...

Posted Tue, Mar 13, 3:29 p.m.

" Police Chief John Diaz has reinstated the department’s gang unit, which had been downsized down to nearly nothing. But at every public venue in Southeast Seattle, the police are at pains to say, “We can’t arrest our way out of the problem. Only the community can solve it” — ...

Posted Sun, Mar 11, 3:10 p.m.

jd says: Is the house strapped to the foundation? Curious how the precautions stop at houses, the safest in earthquakes. What about all the denser and denser preferred dwellings and neighborhoods of "Save the Planet"?

Posted Fri, Mar 9, 9:24 a.m.

Please keep on parsing, it's all very interesting, even more if I had a clue as to what exactly you mean by the following phrasing at the top of the second page: " liberalized environments to attract highly educated new workers, higher education calibrated to these needs, and infrastructure to ...

Posted Wed, Mar 7, 10:11 a.m.

News fit to print. Thanks, Collin.

Posted Tue, Mar 6, 5:50 p.m.

"In any case, Lemphers argues, "There's been a de facto tanker ban in place since the 1970s." He concedes that this has been a matter of policy, rather than law, but he notes that in Canada's last federal election, four of the five main parties — not including the party ...

Posted Wed, Feb 29, 4:54 p.m.

David, Your "But for now, the region is still committed to the Big Hub notion for the central city" is more than accurate. What you omit is that our elected representatives meeting as PSRC ash-canned Vision 2020 (multiple centers) for Vision 2040 (five mega-cities). Crosscut files will reveal that Doug ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 5:50 p.m.

mhays, Facts being pretty much facts, its what the age makes of them that makes the difference. Please enlighten me if your approach to 21st century urban life has advanced any beyond the 16th century's mythical "let them eat cake," or the Chinese emperor's older but possibly less mythical response ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 12:32 p.m.

Following your indirect trail to the development economist and doing some moving around, one comes up with approximately Morrill's comment the last time you and Crosscut took this on: ~C. Leinberger March 2008:The Next Slum—[Escape From the Suburban Fringe]? http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/6653/ Many are empty; renters of dubious character occupy others.... There’s ...

Posted Mon, Feb 27, 1:27 p.m.

"And how about taking a look at loosening the state’s limits on the lending of its credit to BENEFIT private entities? A LIMITED peeling back of the constitution’s LIMITS could help lower the cost of public infrastructure — roads, sidewalks, drainage, and even affordable housing — by reducing the cost ...

Posted Sun, Feb 26, 3:29 p.m.

Amen, eddiew

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 12:27 p.m.

"In the late 1950s when the Logan and Norton buildings were erected they were the first major private downtown office buildings built since the Depression." Now the Norton building, dear Mossback, is a root that I'd be happy to revisit. Thanks for the reminder.

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 12:22 p.m.

By a strange coincidence, today, the presidential politics of the double standard on social issues made the opinion page of the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204909104577235471075318762.html With both parties barking up the wrong tree on matters of far greater importance, the media is more than happy to provide the distractions to keep the ...

Posted Fri, Feb 17, 12:03 p.m.

"scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers" 1884. The value free politics of our cities have carried on thus long before, and I predict long after, Logan and Molotch introduced dear readers to the "growth coalition" in their now classic "Urban Fortunes." The only news here is that ...

Posted Thu, Feb 16, 2:10 p.m.

"While piles of press and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are sucked into the inertia of industrial-scale, controversial infrastructure projects such as the viaduct, projects like BFF, which are willing to accommodate and investigate their community's needs and can raise the health, happiness, and standard of living of a ...

Posted Tue, Feb 14, 2:23 p.m.

Hey orino, how you know the offer has not already been made and declined? Thanks though for some critical thinking. Rarer than one would think.

Posted Wed, Feb 8, 4:03 p.m.

FWIW Seattle's Planning Director claimed at recent Waterfront all-weather-plan forum that foot passengers are now the majority of ferry useage at Colman Dock. That true?

Posted Tue, Feb 7, 5:51 p.m.

One thing the legislature has right—both progressive and regressive initiative writers need to come up with whole solutions, funding source included. Problem is, with the feds setting the example for "unfunded mandates," very few of those who take matters into their own hands have been willing to handicap themselves with ...

Posted Tue, Feb 7, 5:39 p.m.

This reader, and I am sure many others, executed the round trip in reverse. Arriving in Boston long long ago, I thought I'd reached heaven prematurely. I soon learned what regular or (I think it must have been black) coffee meant, but had to wait until sultry summer to learn ...

Posted Mon, Feb 6, 12:39 p.m.

"Library Perv doll"— punditry at is best.

Posted Sat, Feb 4, 5:05 p.m.

What happens after the Senate version (SB 6372, sponsored by R. Sen. Swecker) is stripped of its stormwater section in the substitute that made the first cut, but the House version (HB2641, sponsored by Dems) still contains its stormwater section in the substitute that made the first cut. Isn't government ...

Posted Fri, Feb 3, 11:40 a.m.

"There’s a near-100 percent probability that if the church had been demolished, whatever modern condoplex replaced it would be a poorer building. That’s a hell of an indictment, but look around Seattle — and believeth." Amen. You write as though this was just finished, if so, doing it right also ...

Posted Thu, Feb 2, 11:28 p.m.

A reader's digest of Losing Ground for the overly busy: Use of the Tools at Hand: "—The majority of Puget Sound counties have enacted the conservation futures tax, but only Skagit County uses the proceeds solely for farmland protection and many counties rarely buy farm easements. —Only San Juan County ...

Posted Thu, Feb 2, 8:54 p.m.

Another essential conversation well begun. Question for Wood: IF you were correct than there should be few if any farmers electing to assess their property at use value. Is that true? Instead of horror stories, you need to come clean with real data, e.g. numbers of use value elections and ...

Posted Thu, Feb 2, 1:49 p.m.

The larger conversation we side-step at our peril: http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/aclu_sues_obama_administration_over_assassination_secrecy/singleton/

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 4:33 p.m.

My reading of history tells me Jean has it correct. But a recent session with Howard Zinn has me wondering it this is narrowly written so as to permit the same silencing of discent to repeat itself in relation to current and future avowed enemies? A most timely discussion to ...

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 12:40 p.m.

"The local governments that are the subject of the debate are those whose sewer and storm-drain systems serve fewer than 100,000 people. The state’s six largest local governments — King, Pierce, Snohomish and Clark counties and Seattle and Tacoma — already have started developing low-impact-development codes that are due to ...

Posted Tue, Jan 31, 11:45 a.m.

Question: is it racist to call a black conservative an Uncle Tom? If one can answer "not necessarily" to that, then you may well find Professor Thomas Sowell's "Economic Facts and Fallacies" most informative. Where he knows experientially about what he writes, he is outstanding, i.e., "Racial Facts and Facllacies" ...

Posted Sun, Jan 29, 12:44 p.m.

Well spoken, Diane. Now make it happen.

Posted Fri, Jan 27, 1:07 p.m.

" this shift no doubt provides cover for journalist-posing PR types": NO Doubt at all! "the bigger question: What will Seattle do about encouraging more growth around transit citywide and will our land use policies favor people who got here first, or the residents of Seattle's future?" No. That question ...

Posted Wed, Jan 25, 1:36 p.m.

There is a very good reason this 2011 book by David Kennedy already has 22 SPL holds on 10 copies: http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2730308030_dont_shoot Author's presentation here: http://wwww.c-spanvideo.org/program/DontSh

Posted Sat, Jan 21, 1:58 p.m.

My thanks to Crosscut's Clickerer for catching two contemporary examples in one of neoliberalism in action, plus a reminder of the plain English definition provided ages ago by Oscar Wilde: "knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing." http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/20/Canada-Feels-Like-Peru/

Posted Fri, Jan 20, 4:09 p.m.

"Education Week recently gave the state an "F" in education spending." Knute, most would agree you have a serious matter by the tail, so there is no need for half truths such as that sentence of yours copied above. Fortunately the link you provide does a much better job of ...

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 5:25 p.m.

Not to single out Nelson, but media parroting of data mill produced statistical innumeracy flaunts endless warnings, e.g., John Allen Paulos—1988: "When statistics are presented so nakedly... about all we can do is shrug or, if sufficiently intrigued, try to determine the context on our own.... The urge to average ...

Posted Mon, Jan 16, 11:37 a.m.

http://its.berkeley.edu/btl/2010/spring/HRS-life-cycle

Posted Mon, Jan 16, 10:37 a.m.

When there was a will, there was a way. Forget all this Tweedledum and Tweedledeeing. Restore the paramount duty of state government—assure all those of modest means an education that enables self-fulfillment and furthers the democracy as opposed to socialism-for-the-rich, subject only to periodic conning of an ill-informed electorate, contemptuously ...

Posted Sat, Jan 14, 4:37 p.m.

HM's "magical bipartisan centrist solution" exists today exactly as it always has, and what is truly magical about it is how easily trivial debate by parties that basically pursue the same pro-corporate policies regardless of formal differences and debate successfully cons, tunes out, and turns off the U.S. public. See ...

Posted Thu, Jan 12, 3:39 p.m.

Beyond the overly innocent "lying in the shadow of Mount Rainier," this reader would like to know more about where Eatonville sits in demographics and school "achievement." See link below http://www.thenation.com/article/165575/why-congress-redlining-our-schools Next chapter, maybe?

Posted Wed, Jan 11, 4:26 p.m.

Van Dyk: "Kennedy was forced to mobilize on short notice 150,000 Army Reservists" My memory is on thin ice here, but I do not recall the Reservists and Guard back then being recalled again and again, as they are now and apparently would continue to be. The U.S. has never ...

Posted Tue, Jan 10, 5:37 p.m.

The following today from Naomi Klein comes closest to the bone I have to pick with the alma mater that would not be mine were my birthdate to have made me a student today: "Look at the Chilean student protests, for instance. That’s a remarkable movement, and it’s historically hugely ...

Posted Tue, Jan 10, 10 a.m.

For one thing I am most grateful: pundits don't yet run public universities.

Posted Sat, Jan 7, 12:46 p.m.

"but their normalcy is a liability in tough times, when realism and divergent thinking are critical." Both realism and divergent thinking are traits of left-handed people allowed to express their left-handedness. Many of our recent Presidents, including the current one, were/are left-handed. But as expressed by the photo of the ...

Posted Sat, Jan 7, 12:24 p.m.

My compliments to all of those respectfully challenging BlueLight so as to draw out a start on the unstated assumptions behind his/her sarcastic brevity that too often comes across counterproductively as (hopeless) contempt. Crosscut growing up?

Posted Wed, Jan 4, 10:37 p.m.

Thnaks crankyoldlady! "The word “univocal” refers to words that have one and only one meaning. I’m not aware that the word has any alternative meanings (although it would be wonderfully ironic if it did). “Keynesianism” for sure is not a univocal term and, like all non-univocal words, there can be ...

Posted Wed, Jan 4, 1:37 p.m.

From g's helpful link: "If you're going to operate on the baseline that the state budget always has to increase on maintenance of service levels, then you're not giving government any incentive to find efficiencies or find new ways to deliver services," said Jason Mercier, director of the Center for ...

Posted Mon, Jan 2, 1:38 p.m.

coolpapa, Those unhappy with the ever-advancing tentacles of Shock and Awe might wish to resolve this new year to personally no matter how small, transform Occupy's free floating grouchiness into understandable and effective rejection of any one of the many unacknowledged negative consequences of the steady advance of corporatism. Other ...

Posted Fri, Dec 30, 2:04 p.m.

In the midst of reading Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine, Disaster Capitalism," a takedown of the actions of Milton Friedman, this bickering amounts to a tempest in a teapot in contrast and inspires me to urge all left, right, and middle-leaning to make use of what freedoms we still have to ...

Posted Mon, Dec 26, 5:24 p.m.

GMA a heavy club? Maybe so, but laws age oh so rapidly in this state and the amended and interpreted GMA is today much more like Wonderland's use of the flamingo as croquet mallet. SEPA, an even heavier club, has been treated to similar limp-noodle diminution. As for "good feeling ...

Posted Sat, Dec 24, 4:13 p.m.

"What Florida points out is that many cities that are considered to have the most expensive housing also are at the top of the list for the amount of money people have left over at the end of the month for other critical expenses. One explanation of that is that ...

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 3:49 p.m.

Since I subscribe, I can not tell if the Journal is behind a paywall or if you have some way of bypassing that. I always hesitate to link to it for this reason. As to Emanuel's take, a story on whether he has the national pulse here, or primarily Chicago's ...

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 3:40 p.m.

" Seattle School Board races have to be treated like Seattle City Council races, ..." Heaven forbid.

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 3:13 p.m.

A request and a comment "But this type of review does allow the local jurisdiction to challenge the DOJ’s findings in court." For the rest of your discourse to make sense, please change the pronoun "this" (in the above quoted sentence) to let us know which of the reviews you ...

Posted Sun, Dec 18, 1:57 p.m.

Lesslie Blanchard, 1968 "The Street Railway Era in Seattle, published by Harold Cox, PA; 151 pages plus many maps Some of the routes are still amenable to reverse engineering: begin with curiously wider streets, a few with filled in track locations still showing (e.g. just north of Seattle Center). For ...

Posted Fri, Dec 16, 12:38 p.m.

Thanks for starting the picture. Here's some thoughts on completing it so that it includes all factors and their duration throughout the year. E.g., in addition to the factor raised by BlueLight, what about the region's huge increase in commercial airline traffic? Items routinely left outside began to be chronically ...

Posted Thu, Dec 15, 11:32 a.m.

Dear peanut gallery, one and all: The long, albeit alternative, history of our country amply charts the occasions that grant people the right to "protest and express their concerns in the public space" and the occasions that either seriously water down or violate those rights. The former remains the ideal, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 3:18 p.m.

Dribble. Channel 5 just broke the real news— this Mayor dropped 50 pounds on duty by eating more veges less pasta and increasing the bike commute. Some mayors walk the talk.

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 3:04 p.m.

With the thought weighing heavier and heavier of Crosscut adrift without the even-handed neighborhood perspective of Kent Kammerer, Judy steps up to the plate with her own slant on fair-mindedness. Go, Judy!

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 11:59 a.m.

"The payroll tax debate is critically important to poor people and to individual American Indians. " Odd phrasing, surely you mean the working poor. Andy, Think!

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 11:50 a.m.

The column in this picture suggests the Moore Pool, although I don't remember a walk-in. More certain: that's Helene Madison exactly as I remember her attempting to teach me to swim at that pool with its extremely toasty, uniquely claustrophobic feel. Helene's short, but legendary career began there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Madison

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 1:24 p.m.

David, I'd have more faith in Crosscut and, most certainly, Friedman if in the following list the word "entertained" had not appeared, and the other aspects of life been arranged as product ingredients are to be listed (greatest/most of value first) "that make people’s lives more entertained, productive, healthy, educated, ...

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 12:59 p.m.

Judy, Half truths always need the other half to make sense and get us anywhere. The half you leave out is that after resolving the Great Depression by expanding the world of consumers we've proceeded on to excess, exclusion, and the present Great Disruption. Having great faith in your skills, ...

Posted Sun, Dec 11, 5:11 p.m.

Re: "some in-city neighborhoods were so “beautiful, affluent, quiet,” with their “trees, lawns, and single-family detached homes” they could be called suburban. “For all practical purposes, they look and function like suburbs.” Fred Siegel, senior fellow of another Institute puts out a "now he tells us" warning about "New York ...

Posted Fri, Dec 9, 12:46 p.m.

David, Letting the gunnysack get overloaded increases the chances of one's dripping contempt shooting oneself in the foot. Commenters do a good job of demonstrating that particular pitfall, or so you say, so what gives?

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 2:02 p.m.

WSH Commenter: "I used to commute 1 mile by subway in San Francisco. Door to door it took, on average, an hour each day to get to work. I eventually began cycling instead, which cut the trip time to 20 minutes. There may be many benefits to having a subway ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 11:12 a.m.

And who knows the real Obama? The electorate would have to guess which is the real Tweedledum, which, the real Tweedledee, and how that may matter until the next election. If we are lucky we will have two sets of public management records to compare, so thank you David for ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 9:54 a.m.

Shame. Low entry buses are used throughout the world for BTA and as street-car substitutes— the most well known are probably those in use in Brazil. High frequency use within Seattle hardly calls for the antiquated monster shown in the picture. How serious is a) ignoring that a very close ...

Posted Wed, Nov 30, 1:07 p.m.

I tried to read this. Wolfe needs to think "lively writing" unless he's totally happy writing to the choir.

Posted Wed, Nov 30, 12:51 p.m.

Here's a few memories for what those are worth these days: Seems as though there are not enough people left in town who can remember when the Pike Place Market was for picking up whatever could be carried home on the bus after a trip to the department stores and ...

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 4:11 p.m.

Geezer, A map printed in the WSJ today seconds your assessment that enough might just be enough. Only two states show a budget deficit for the fiscal year that began in July. Washington's red circle is larger than Oregon's. All the other 48 states show varying degrees of surplus (green ...

Posted Mon, Nov 28, 1:37 p.m.

The Urban Institutes all talk a good generic line, that we knew, but as always the devil is in the details. I noticed a few journalists over Thanksgiving easing their minds and assuring us how kind we had become. I do agree that we continue to invent never-ending ways to ...

Posted Sat, Nov 26, 1:50 p.m.

Dick, How does this compare to decades, half century, a century ago? As you indicate, concentrations of income inequality vary through time and space. A case can be made that the present formations during this Great Contraction mask the need for support. One would expect the demographer newly attached to ...

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 4:16 p.m.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-25/china-solar-makers-face-suicidal-prices-on-excess-output.html

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 2:42 p.m.

smacgry says "Every city that has light rail also operates buses. Including light rail in the mix has several advantages, which is why light rail is so widespread: where bus lines and bus stops lower property values and tend to drive businesses out, light rail tends to raise them and ...

Posted Thu, Nov 24, 5:23 p.m.

In keeping with the mood, I have been rereading The People's History of the United States. I am just getting to the part where beyond starting imperialist wars looking for the consumers needed to justify early over-production, corporatists, between times, were coming to see a less bloody way to continue ...

Posted Thu, Nov 24, 11:56 a.m.

Those of tired of all the flack can now, thanks to the NYT DIY Deficit Reduction, at least get a grasp on the numbers and fine tune the rhetoric. That WOULD be nice! http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 12:52 p.m.

Rep. Carlyle, Please tell us more about "the way we sunset tax exemptions."

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 5:57 p.m.

@ Lincoln " This is just an excuse to create more "road diets", curb bulbs, bike paths, etc., which the average Seattle voter is strongly opposed to." Just when Mike and Mike think themselves masters of the U.S urbane pack, the British come up with yet another reason to redo ...

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 9:54 p.m.

History and critical thinking are not dead after all. Thanks, eddiew.

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 3:39 p.m.

orino, run your cursor over the line above your post that reads "Posted Mon...." at any time after you hit submit comment and your goof shines back at you.

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 3:32 p.m.

Today, environmentalists and corporatists are given to declarations of principles and intentions—manifesto. To make matters worse, governments are increasingly loth to clear up the distinction between manifesto, e.g. State Growth Management Act, and problem solving, e.g., State Environmental Policy Act. At the least, this new Transit Manifesto "needs additional citations ...

Posted Sun, Nov 20, 4:53 p.m.

Less PR, more informative alternative take at: http://www.newgeography.com/content/002221-the-dispersionist-manifesto

Posted Sun, Nov 20, 3:35 p.m.

There is a bigger take on sweetheart deals at: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/secrets_of_the_american_nomenklatura.html

Posted Sat, Nov 19, 12:55 p.m.

When the media treads lightly: "OCCUPY Lethbridge to put Fracking on trial OCCUPY LETHBRIDGE is seeking to hold a very serious mock event. "Putting Fracking on Trial" is the proposed event, tentatively planned for March. If handled professionally, we envision that it might be possible to show that citizen groups ...

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 1:17 p.m.

Crosscut title writers need to read the article before selecting a generalization like coal exports ECLIPSE A tar-sands pipeline. de Place barely raises another subject: " here’s my analysis of their carbon impacts" Carbon is indeed the single-minded focus of many of today's so-called environmentalists. True environmentalists analyze the full ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 2:42 p.m.

"define who we are as a state and who our government really works for — the hard-working and struggling families in our communities, or powerful special interests." Truth is, even prior to nationhood, the latter has always used the former as front, not that countless people have not lost livelihoods ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 2:08 p.m.

Write on, Laura.

Posted Tue, Nov 15, 12:08 p.m.

jwatts: "The missing party may refer to 'the party of the first part', in other words, us, the voters. A thought shared by Naomi Klein who takes up where Zinn left off: http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate While at the Nation, take a peak at Stamper's take on dividing issues into black and white: ...

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 12:10 p.m.

being a sucker for these end-of-line affairs: both of you might want to do some wading in the proceeds of the end-of-month International Conference on Family Planning— http://www.fpconference2011.org/ The following is a snippet from lead-up on that home page, which I have started searching for evidence of results of the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:45 a.m.

All 'cept the Gov.?

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:38 a.m.

I didn't think it possible, but this take is even sillier, head-in-sand than the Mayor's.

Posted Sun, Nov 6, 8:55 p.m.

I am increasingly puzzled by the paradox of a rapidly advancing corporate state accompanied by equally advancing "Greater Good," that is until the so called meter ran out. To restore sanity from time to time, I recall life of-old in this very city and state. For instance like today when ...

Posted Fri, Nov 4, 4:44 p.m.

When is a state income tax not a state income tax? When it is a "capital gains" tax. The power to name.

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 2:43 p.m.

I see that voters have already dodged one bullet: " an admired challenger to Godden, deputy prosecutor Maurice Classen, running on a platform of modernizing city hall and shaping a business culture to the current economy, couldn't muster business support," Brewster 11/3; now on to the next.

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 11:24 a.m.

Watch it, David, you are beginning to sound like a "professional" planner: "or cities modernizing to match the new economy." How about writing your next piece on whatever you meant by that. A rather odd pairing, and I am curious as to what you think the new economy is or ...

Posted Tue, Nov 1, 11:17 a.m.

Thanks to Crosscut for more examples of the gobbledygook that "professional" planners speak: "tie the old ways of thinking about topics such as transportation and land use to the “next-generation goals” about jobs and the economy" "an open, honest, multi-party dialogue, with everyone's interests solicited and considered before a final ...

Posted Fri, Oct 28, 6:19 p.m.

Gary, you are not half bad down off your high-horse!

Posted Thu, Oct 27, 5:15 p.m.

Dick, your movement is already in full swing here: http://www.getmoneyout.com/ And that Clicker link to businessweek on Graeber notes the other half of the anger: "The inchoate anger of the Occupy Wall Street protesters tends to cluster around two things. One is the influence of money in politics. The other ...

Posted Thu, Oct 27, 11:41 a.m.

Crosscut's saving grace is how many readers connect shallowness of thought with manipulation. Message to Mannix: true left iconoclasts are routinely marginalized and replaced with corporate state mandarins and the other hangers-on needed to purge independent thought. Cloying piety is a near certain sign of the captive left, not the ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 12:25 p.m.

$3 billion's a piece of cake, $3 trillion, something else again. Prooooof please.

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 12:13 p.m.

@ woofer—Not entirely clear who the sermonette is aimed at, but agree that's the right word for the digression that also manages to lump together current trendy causes as just and "pragmatic" as compared to causes held just in the more distant past. Very pseudo-intellectual— the sort of thing Chris ...

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 3:26 p.m.

A discussion of safe streets in most cities includes the actual physical condition of the streets. Has Crosscut and this writer limited the discussion to accommodate the sponsors of tonight's meeting's implied focus? At any rate, today the Seattle Times finally got around to investigative reporting worthy of the phrase ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 2:33 a.m.

What a breath of fresh air!

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 2:28 a.m.

News Flash! Land Use, land use, land use all the time is a far cry from "sustainability," whatever that is. For particulars see dhal9000: http://crosscut.com/2011/10/18/elections/21434/A-doomsday-scenario-in-2012/#comments When "we" ALL get the task ahead straight, organizing to accomplish "reform," is (relatively speaking) the easy part. I'd suggest more focus on the hard ...

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 6 p.m.

Well said! dhal9000— we sure as hell don't have to wait for the laggards in charge to come around— it's in our own hands right where it's always been. For particulars download the consumption atlas summary found here: http://www.acfonline.org.au/consumptionatlas/ Australian Conservation Foundation: "What's the Environmental Cost of Our Spending? Everything ...

Posted Mon, Oct 17, 5:10 p.m.

"Making the region globally competitive, cleaning up Puget Sound, reforming regional governance, leading a new Green Age, improving regional transportation, shaping a more socially just city, capitalizing on being a center of global health and philanthropy. Could new leadership find a way to tackle the whole list?" NO. Leadership arising ...

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 12:35 p.m.

ST page A14 today: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey complain toll cheats are costing them $14 million of necessary "steep toll increases that the Port Authority says it needs to finish building the new World Trade Center." Look East for how a city's infrastructure justifies and ...

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 5:01 p.m.

What this first local in-depth analysis worthy of that word misses is Seattle's place at the beginning of the public outcry's first leg. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keli_Carender As to the outcry's third leg yet to be addressed—your link to Bill McKibben is broken—the much slower to dawn public awareness of the full ...

Posted Wed, Oct 12, 6:46 p.m.

Great Cynic's take on what OWS wants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT8YW3cIAKg&feature;=relmfu Essential short read on how we all got here: Boomerang by Michael Lewis Still no word on what to do about it.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 2:46 p.m.

Eric, thanks for bridging the gap.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 2:26 p.m.

"If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us. Does anyone not agree ...

Posted Mon, Oct 10, 6:02 p.m.

Whatever color the light, even more would be better! " the pervasive influence of health care lobbyists on CONGRESS, WHICH INSURES that the market functions in the health care industry’s favor no matter what the facts are. When the CEO of the largest private for-profit health care company in the ...

Posted Mon, Oct 10, 10:24 a.m.

"Develop Community don't Destroy It." Ironically that same message runs tonight through Thursday night at NW Film Forum right in the heart of Pike/Pine: http://battleforbrooklyn.com/ http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/1875 As Occupy Seattle builds a head of steam a short mile away, the best example of the politico/corporate addiction to "grow or die"' attracted ...

Posted Sat, Oct 8, 5:08 p.m.

I was at the Nordic Heritage Museum today and in the Swedish Room came upon the details of the origin of Seattle's Millionair Club, circa ~ 1920 and still going strong! A comment above about the days of little homelessness, plus Judy's closing question brought to mind my surprise at ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 2:18 p.m.

I agree with the author and with the governor— we face a conundrum far more complicated than the first Great Depression. Once again we are blindsided without ready solution after getting sidetracked this time on "21st Century" this and that, the equivalent of everyman's duty in the 1920s to get ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 1:23 p.m.

Probably too much to hope for, but some of the ringleaders of current populist persuasions may have spent a few hours with authors like John Talbot (Sell Now, The End of the Housing Bubble, 2006), Bethany McLean/JoeNocera (All the Devils Are Here, the Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, 2010), ...

Posted Wed, Oct 5, 4:49 p.m.

dbreneman, thanks for the clarification, but your example does not seem to fit the complaint. How can an admittedly drawn-out democratic process that got you what you wanted in the end (no big chunk out of SR-99 at least for those who can afford the toll) be an issue that ...

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 1:32 p.m.

dbreneman, you need to recognize the distinction between "Seattle issues" and "Seattle residents," who, if we are talking in large round numbers, are for the most part asleep about not only their own issues but those of the rest of the state. I'd venture few residents anywhere know about the ...

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 11:01 a.m.

Thank you sarah for showing the problem with loose definitions. From what I can tell, what Roger takes offense at and claims to have been a part of is the "neighborhood movement" that the City Council promoted in order to realize the comprehensive plan it was modifying and even more ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 10:56 p.m.

The biking is interesting. Except for the West Hills, Portland is as bike-friendly flat as Seaside.

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 10:06 p.m.

Yes that was likely the point, Ben. What you missed was its self-serving falsehood especially the part about all activists are single family home owners. DDMiller's error is assuming all activists are members of community councils. Even if that were the case, not even all members of community councils are ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 2:55 p.m.

I just got around to reading John Talbot's 2006 "SELL NOW! The End of the Housing Bubble." It's true what someone said recently, " it should be required reading for the entire political class from party hack to pundit." Critics of his 2003 "The Coming End to the Housing Market," ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 1:35 p.m.

Re: "'The question is, why are they only now finding out about something [in a bill] they supported?'" Read the bill? So old hat!

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 12:53 p.m.

Back to the Future! The denial of apartment neighborhoods and the apartment's banishment to strip-zones along arterials came with the rise of "affordable housing" after WWII. The base of Seattle's zoning came long before that and despite a lot of tinkering still retains a rational mix of building types albeit ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 11:33 a.m.

As at Crosscut, the comments complete the parts of the story not told. Good link!

Posted Sun, Sep 25, 7:53 p.m.

David Smith, obviously the Council views voters as a winning mixture of the following: with them in general (the token opposition), as generous or gullible as ever, distracted by other things and not paying attention. They may well be right. Sad commentary, if so.

Posted Sat, Sep 24, 10:33 p.m.

David Smith, the answer to the question you pose you already know: "the incumbents running for re-election face only token opposition." Why is that you then ask: For starters, it takes a lot of generally behind the scenes backing to run a successful city-wide Council election. All "tokens" run for ...

Posted Sat, Sep 24, 9:44 p.m.

"What are the council members who voted unanimously for this providing as a rationale?" July 13, 2011 Thank you for contacting me regarding a proposal to allow—under specific guidelines and regulations—digital billboards in unincorporated King County.... Proposed Ordinance 2011-0140, legislation which I have co-sponsored, would amend the King County Code ...

Posted Sat, Sep 24, 12:20 p.m.

climate, how about editing your last paragraph for clarity, otherwise the attempt to begin assembling the puzzle pieces is commendable!

Posted Sat, Sep 24, 12:05 p.m.

For those of you who keep wondering aloud why Crosscut keeps Ted in "print," this gauntlet of public opinion speaks volumes—he is gifted at swiftly bringing all the basic assumptions to the fore, quite a useful function in that it gives Crosscut a measure of where we all are after ...

Posted Wed, Sep 21, 7:54 p.m.

"nonexistent rules of the 'free market'" That's a good one. As is labeling those assumed to be Republicans as trying to compare getting hung up on "nonexistent rules" to a Carter moment. Carter may have had the equivalent of a Chicago problem, but I don't recall them as so blatant, ...

Posted Wed, Sep 21, 7:42 p.m.

Assume your PSA refers to the Public Stadium Authority, not the Pioneer Square Alliance.

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 11:20 p.m.

Mark, Accolades on getting past all the numerical abstractions and on to why designs work and don't work, something upon which as far as I can tell you are unusually equipped to provide insight. The comment about extending your vision beyond downtown, but not as far as other cities, is ...

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 10:35 p.m.

@ Richard's "Are we seriously trying to compare Obama to Carter? NO, most of us are desperately trying NOT to compare Obama to Carter. Unfortunately their luck so far seems to be a dead match, but hopefully, this time too we have the time to find out or a leader ...

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 10:19 p.m.

Knock me over with a feather, or did someone just pose as Valdez? No wonder the City Council is so confused!

Posted Sat, Sep 17, 5:58 p.m.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011 http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/ "The Real Green Economy Of The Future Despite what you might conclude from reading the news (and sometimes this blog), green energy companies can be eco-friendly and profitable. The Economist reports: 'A new study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) ...

Posted Sat, Sep 17, 4:47 p.m.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/585083/201109161838/Political-Debate-Is-Still-Trapped-In-20s-Thinking.aspx so's your old man?

Posted Sat, Sep 17, 10:02 a.m.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/585122/201109161838/A-Successful-Fraud.aspx A listing of scientists who object to the "consensus" on "'incontrovertible' evidence that man's CO2 emissions are causing global warming." In this editorial the IBD leaves it at that, which is good, except for the caption. Where their assumptions often go next is not that good.

Posted Fri, Sep 16, 10:56 a.m.

"Now debt fear has gripped the country,..paying for the debt they incur with the money they save from those efficiencies" That the concept of credit and interest that has been the basis of Western economics for centuries and of yesterday's global finance is no longer certain is one very healthy ...

Posted Wed, Sep 14, 4:08 p.m.

Rybezynski's "Makeshift Metropolis" writ small. The sensible notion of "the best urbanism is that which is already there to be nurtured" (with infrastructure improvements) unfortunately conflicts with Seattle's new notion that infrastructure improvements justify upzones and at a rate far higher than love justifying marriage. Get "nurtured:" there goes the ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 2:16 p.m.

Sherwin, try to argue fairly. Rolls overlooked the test for figurative analogy and asked for your response, but that is not the case with orino's polite request for the standard testing expected of all informal argumentation. That comment does not say or imply that "housing in cities is inherently costly." ...

Posted Mon, Sep 12, 1:32 p.m.

Roger, Please before you do anything else take a course in Argumentation (Great Courses has a great one). Beyond that, it's probably all independent study, at least I am unaware of any inexpensive, readily available course that bridges the strange chasm between urban design (originally, architecture) and urban planning. Please ...

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 6:37 p.m.

bkochis: your putdown of conservative commenters overlooks the possibility that it was not always thus that public education amounted to brainwashing. This possibility also helps explain higher education's shift to research and sports.

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 6:17 p.m.

@ Asian's "...stormwater scientists has begun calculating pollutant loading per capita instead of per area. The same theory goes for habitat conservation, energy consumption, etc. I don't think the author has thought this through." Thanks for pointing out a practice that itself needs more exposure and thinking through. For example, ...

Posted Sat, Sep 3, 2:16 p.m.

Vagueness: the In Thing Highway Funds Going Off-Road. David Hogberg, Investor's Business Daily, 9/2/11: "A Government Accountability Office report found that 32% of the HTF didn't go toward highway or bridge construction and upkeep from fiscal 2004-08. That rose to 38% in 2009, according to an analysis by Ron Utt, ...

Posted Wed, Aug 31, 2:56 p.m.

Mark says Tim said: “These subdivisions had high costs for the families that bought the lots, the nearby farms and forests, and the environment. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that these high costs have led to a high level of foreclosures,” I'd be willing to bet that if Snohomish ...

Posted Wed, Aug 31, 12:51 p.m.

Deciding whether Irene recovery will be an economic stimulus or not reminded people of the dead Englishmen who coined the broken window theory—the shopkeeper repairing his window merely redistributes existing funds to a "less productive use." We have yet to apply the theory to GDP so it is no wonder ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 11:26 a.m.

Slideshow has very effective graphics colors this time. Thanks! That northeast tip of what I take to be Bainbridge in the first and last slides, very interesting, is there some special situation accounting for it?

Posted Sat, Aug 27, 11:25 a.m.

"high density [re]development will continue to be one option of many, even within Seattle's boundaries" A hopeful place upon which to stop and do what wise experts do when they disagree: get more information. Try that link to the King County Buildable Lands Report (a required update is due next ...

Posted Fri, Aug 26, 5:07 p.m.

I see it is rather pointless to intrude on a degenerating, enoline private dispute, and I doubt this additional report of policy and market not necessarily being one and the same will change any line-in-the-sand, but for what it is worth: http://www.theroot.com/views/chicagos-shrinking-black-community

Posted Fri, Aug 26, 2:33 p.m.

..."slightly moves the market along the supply and demand curve, and the average home becomes more affordable. Matt: Where exactly is the USA is the theory of densifying for affordability getting that result? It may surprise you that in the not too distant past, a Seattle house zoned MF sold ...

Posted Thu, Aug 25, 6:07 p.m.

Thanks Matt for explaining how pigs fly This may be a little over your head, but give it a try. Note, this is big bad DPD making the Seattle evaluation, surely they would not over estimate! http://your.kingcounty.gov/budget/buildland/bldlnd07.htm And after you have got that straightened out in your head, then spend ...

Posted Thu, Aug 25, 5:48 p.m.

It's not just coal that may be en route to China: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/08/25/more-green-madness-on-the-plains/

Posted Wed, Aug 24, 6:05 p.m.

The heart of Knut's conundrum: "The problem with science is an American problem because it means fighting our way back to a place where theories can be debated, tested, and explored in rational ways. Yet democracy has a strong bias toward the irrational and emotional for relying on beliefs — ...

Posted Tue, Aug 23, 3:18 p.m.

andy, 1) the county code and the city code are NOT one and the same, 2) variance rules vary, but I have little doubt you were grossly misinformed, 3) check before you leap.

Posted Tue, Aug 23, 12:20 p.m.

The words of Steve E. from @ http://crosscut.com/2011/08/17/climate/21211/Letter-to-the-Editor:-Climate-change-is-unlikely-to-be-cause-of-a-heat-wave-/ are applicable here as well: "Pay particular attention to the core "science" in this propaganda piece... Note that he supplies absolutely no reference to anything supporting this thesis. Nary a single peer reviewed article. No synthesis reports by any respected scientific body. ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 10:07 p.m.

smacgry, I may be having a senior moment, but is not self-employment tax the counterpart to payroll taxes, the means to social security? If so, how would more taxes from GE compensate for sole proprietors rationalizing that they can kick retirement funds down the road independent of Uncle Sam? Even ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 5:59 p.m.

Steve E. , Gore's rolling stone piece is also guilty as charged, as are you at "no respected climatologists..." I do agree with you that sources do matter if any of you are interested in coming to public judgment any time soon.

Posted Sat, Aug 20, 1:01 p.m.

To Tom @ "On to the next attacker:" Shame on you, but not to worry, it is all too human to get hassled and miss the distinction between those attacking you and those not, and then to forget that the surest and fastest way to effective reasoning is through taking ...

Posted Sat, Aug 20, 10:42 a.m.

Is that only compounding an ailing economy? No, disasters increase demand and investment—Econ 101

Posted Fri, Aug 19, 4:12 p.m.

Or, as explained by Al Gore: "Many of the extreme and destructive events are the result of the rapid increase in the amount of heat energy from the sun that is trapped in the atmosphere, which is radically disrupting the planet's water cycle. More heat energy evaporates more water into ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 9:12 p.m.

No ripping down and rebuilding many times more dense? Just practical common sense? What a let down! ;-) Walter Russell Mead: "...you can’t tell what the tide is doing by measuring how far each individual wave gets up the beach. The second thing greens need to get is that the ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 11:03 a.m.

BlueLIght, surely you of all people join Seattle voters and planners in agreement with Kreutzer? "Climate change skeptic David Kreutzer, a research fellow in energy economics at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says there have always been "variations in weather" so it makes sense to prepare for storms. But he says ...

Posted Tue, Aug 16, 5:54 p.m.

"When asked directly about those 10 [full time] jobs [within 2 years] per [each] $500,000 in foreign investment under the EB-5 Program, Liebman cited an economic study provided to the government from American Life. The four regional centers provide reports annually to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. While he would ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 1:07 p.m.

Here: http://seattle.uli.org/Sponsorship.aspx http://seattle.uli.org/Network.aspx are the folks behind ULI Seattle. Here: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/watchVideos.asp?program=councilBriefings (Council Briefing July, 7, 2008, Minute 43) three months before the Great Recession, ULI Seattle Quality Growth Alliance explains how climate change environmentalism has been the most successful means they have ever used to bring EVERYONE around to the ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 1:20 p.m.

Re: Tax Foundation There's stories and there's aggregating of numbers. In both, the outcome depends upon the definitions and assumptions made at the start. Please see http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/wp4.pdf There you will find the explanation of methodology, along with the foundation's state-to-state comparison of "per capita income" (including capital gains), "taxes," and ...

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 1:08 p.m.

"planning for the next economy" By the time we agree on what it is, it will be here all by itself, not that all the "we know best, and for the next 100 years!" will not have not foolishly spent much, if not all of the seed corn. Even, and ...

Posted Wed, Aug 10, 1:40 p.m.

girl...: please explain this: The Robbins Company 29100 Hall Street Solon, Ohio 44139 USA voice: +1 440 248 3303 fax: +1 440 248 1702 Robbins And Company 818 Southwest 142nd Street Seattle, WA 98166-1554 (206) 244-1023

Posted Fri, Aug 5, 6:52 p.m.

The EIS law still stands big as life: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=43.21C But fading faster than landline phones are the days when elected officials the likes of Seattle Councilmember Jim Street took advantage of the EIS process to reach well vetted decisions (Seattle Center EIS ~1990). The local scene is quite obvious but ...

Posted Wed, Aug 3, 3:04 p.m.

I'm pre-viaduct so definitely not a viaduct lover, don't like lattes and am not a lefty. Where does that leave me?

Posted Fri, Jul 29, 10:48 a.m.

Re: Capitol Hill/"affordable housing"/change http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2011/07/01/census-data-shows-where-capitol-hill-has-grown-the-most-changed-the-most "...The biggest changes occurred along Madison in areas where Capitol Hill historically meets the Central District. While these areas just north of Madison saw some of the biggest growth in population, the black population declined by about a quarter in the same time period. On ...

Posted Wed, Jul 27, 1:04 p.m.

Councilmember Clark via her latest newsletter has firmly joined the politicians firmly neutral on Roosevelt as well as the "tweak" of picking the lock on single family zones (implementing regulations of comprehensive plan "urban village strategy," specifically LU59). Clark: "...I think the neighborhood's proposal is sound, accepts new growth, and ...

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 5:01 p.m.

I stand with Thomas Sowell on this one. IBD 3/16/2011: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/566241/201103161818/Redevelopment-A-High-Priced-Political-Hoax.aspx

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 12:16 p.m.

TomB: Seattle has been talking BIG about the 21st century long before this Great City mayor, who can only manage to "worry about getting stuck with the tab, but if voters don't care—"then why should he" Thanks for cutting through all the chatter. AN: Having already started avoiding the east ...

Posted Mon, Jul 18, 1:20 p.m.

"a series of code changes to make urban density happen faster and with less hassle in Seattle" Is this emergency jobs act to be similar to the proposed $20 fee for reducing transit cuts—which is to terminate in a year in an improved economy? No? I didn't think so! The ...

Posted Thu, Jul 14, 1:37 p.m.

"...[T]he more we as citizens know about it up front the more this will help the state’s new governor and legislators to deal with further tough fiscal decisions that may be needed down the road." Amen. Thanks for doing the research and composing.

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 1:36 p.m.

Thanks to Crosscut for showing us there are environmentalists and then there are environmentalists. The figure heads of today are far different then the originals. Much like recalling that Dan Evans was/is a Republican. Thanks to mikegjames for helping us grasp the difference between Peter and Vic. Even so I ...

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 9:26 p.m.

@ last Dempsey "5. Is the plan for Crosscut to be only an opinion space? Or is this to be a forum for discussion of ideas? Are solutions to be devised, discussed, and critically examined, or is the goal to have favored authors hand the readers "opinions" in hopes these ...

Posted Mon, Jul 4, 1:44 p.m.

Very appropriate food for I Day, my thanks to one and all!

Posted Sun, Jul 3, 4:07 p.m.

".. there’s the story of the Hoosac Tunnel for the Troy and Greenfield Railroad in western Massachusetts, remembered today wherever modern tunnel boring machines, as in Seattle today, capture public imagination. The first tunnel boring machine, 100 tons of cast iron parts shipped in 1853 from South Boston to the ...

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 6:17 p.m.

Been there and fully agree with your assessments, but does not your finally getting around to saying "and much bigger too (1,200 acres vs. 74)" explain most of the differences you enumerate prior to saying that? The one difference not mentioned—the weather— may well explain how SD's park got to ...

Posted Wed, Jun 29, 3:29 p.m.

Fair enough to assume that the environmental costs of mining are the same in China as this side of the Pacific, although that may or may not be the case, but back of envelope calculations should not include only the burning of the fuel while leaving out the environmental costs ...

Posted Tue, Jun 28, 4:44 p.m.

At first glance, I attributed this news as the answer to why the Northwest Craft Center is being booted from the fountain's northwest side. Reasonable assumption, but not so. So forgive me, I have completely lost track of whether we know what is to go there or not. Even so, ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 6:46 p.m.

Thanks for flagging this and providing the handy way in. Please urge People for Puget Sound to make its Stormwater Policies more "out there." They are quite good, but now buried. I have not been able to get past first base with Wishart, et al.

Posted Wed, Jun 15, 9:13 p.m.

Another lively round! Crosscut will be the lesser when Roger stop asking Bateson's daughter's: "Daddy, why do things get in a muddle?". MacDonald: "Is the main object to attempt to provide development incentives for a very narrow set of locations? Or should the object be transit service and its benefits ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, noon

GaryP, Thanks for your thoughts. I can assure you that zen was exactly how we thought as we breezed along puzzling over the stand-still never-ending in the northbound lanes. Also when it finally dawned on me to take what used to be the normal way home, which had to be ...

Posted Mon, Jun 13, 3:30 p.m.

Gary P, right, you can bet I will be training guests to complete their trip to the airport from a convenient LR station, assuming I can find one that fits the bill. Arriving guests are not so easy to resolve. Any ideas? Message to command central, "if people had only ...

Posted Fri, Jun 10, 11:57 a.m.

gabowker, Don't ask me why I was stupid enough to drive departing guests to the airport, but I discovered trying to get back into town Tuesday morning after a breezy 25 minute trip there and switching on the radio during the 90 minute return trip that the problems with Tuesday's ...

Posted Fri, Jun 10, 11:19 a.m.

Regarding: "I am not sure where the perception comes from that urban sprawl, and the search for single family dwellings with private yards, is recent in origin" An interesting question worth giving further and more serious thought by anyone trying to make sense of pricing work forces out of centers ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 10:19 p.m.

I may be missing something, but I thought that what C.B. Hall was saying was that the cataract was secondary to a disease that would take the eye in time (and did) and that this fact weighed in the denial and possibly in his decision not to pursue having it ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 10:07 p.m.

People who do a good job of reading the Seattle Times know that densification gurus who insist upon brushing aside the social costs of "changing patterns" will need something better than "let them eat cake" if they want to be paid any heed. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014314512_censussouthking24m.html Shifting Population Changes Face of South ...

Posted Wed, Jun 8, 12:48 p.m.

Reader's Picks to Erin and Bentler. Erin: best, though, not to stretch the truth about what "citizens" want. But for the discussions that Crosscut manages to "tolerate," there is little going on around here to grow an informed citizenship by dragging in pieces of the truth and together arriving at ...

Posted Tue, Jun 7, 10:48 a.m.

http://publicola.com/2011/06/06/dont-sleep-through-this-tunnel-vote/

Posted Sat, Jun 4, 2 p.m.

"One of the great things about local government is that eventually pragmatism wins out in almost every instance." E.g., upping the honeypot for voluntary inclusionary housing until it became the hottest game in town. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2015198082_danny01.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015190746_taxbreaks31m.html Pragmatism can't help but be axiomatic sooner or later, but it's also not always ...

Posted Thu, Jun 2, 12:22 p.m.

Art without walls for me begins with and means a firm place for it in public education so that people are informed participants, as opposed to onlookers, too many there for the social climbing. Last night I heard Jimmy Levine explaining how if given the chance to do his life ...

Posted Thu, Jun 2, 12:01 p.m.

Assuming someone else out there is interested in the true events (or at least the record that WSDOT saves) here is how the bored tunnel leapfrogged the front running hybrid alternative and even bounced it from EIS consideration. Again, is this a great place or what? Go to: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/eis.htm [Works!] ...

Posted Thu, Jun 2, 11:34 a.m.

OTOH, we have the Aurora Bridge retrofit that the ST announced today: "Construction workers began seismic repairs on the Aurora Bridge Wednesday, according to a news release of the state DOT... part of a $5.7 million project ... to better withstand a major earthquake... funded by the 2005 gas tax.. ...

Posted Tue, May 31, 12:30 p.m.

It's been almost ten years now since "we" learned from "The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning" (Mintzberg, '94) that the term is an oxymoron —strategy cannot be planned because planning is about analysis and strategy is about synthesis. Each is an entirely different gift, at least often enough to ...

Posted Sat, May 28, 5:56 p.m.

@ sitka " Why is it only through downtown is it demanded that 99 be non-stop?" A very good question! Tunnel vision, maybe?

Posted Mon, May 23, 11:12 p.m.

SSV: no sea wall, not double-decked, and not a state highway? :)?

Posted Mon, May 23, 6:48 p.m.

LOL and glad to see that Brewster can not resist picking scabs when news runs low even though he might not "like what I started." Don't get me wrong— political scabs are not the same as the ones on your knee. One thing that keeps getting left out (you listening ...

Posted Sat, May 21, 6:13 p.m.

Thanks, that's a good one.

Posted Fri, May 20, 12:21 p.m.

"We may be seeing the dawn of a new era for the U.S. economy, when we return to our roots, making and growing things that the world needs." Operative word: "needs." What the world needs now is less consumption, yet with all the excess money about to chase things to ...

Posted Wed, May 18, 10:28 p.m.

Are the number of days per year to be specified, i.e., how sick is normal?

Posted Wed, May 18, 10:01 p.m.

If Red Square is good, then what it replaced was better, at least that is what I have always thought, having experienced both. But even better still were skilled responses to the frequent 12 hour sketch problems for festivals and whatnot in that space that were assigned in the School ...

Posted Sun, May 15, 6:19 p.m.

ILG writes: "The limited housing stock in South Downtown (both Pioneer Square and Chinatown-ID) is primarily subsidized. Far from land speculation, both communities have unanimously identified the need for greater housing density" Who's kidding who?? Forced densification is the same all over, at least China begins with economic facts. May ...

Posted Sun, May 15, 5:47 p.m.

Thanks Crosscut, Thanks Rybcznski!. If anyone keeps things in perspective it's Witold— see “Makeshift Metropolis” and "A Clearing in the Distance"!

Posted Wed, May 11, 9:32 p.m.

OTK, You do an outstanding job on Step One, except for exaggerating the ease of public records requests. Please go on and explain Step Two, unless, that is, you are a public official and until you leave office, retire or are laid off have no idea of what an effective ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 5:32 p.m.

Title misleading

Posted Tue, Apr 26, 6:39 p.m.

Good thing the Times published a map this morning of the actual height increases or I would have fallen for all of the uncharacteristically slanted words. Moving on to the second issue raised—some sort of struggle between old and new in the backward U. S. of A. The wording here ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 7:48 p.m.

Is Blue Light now history?

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 7:29 p.m.

Thanks Knute and Ben. When facing "progress with restraint, how quaint!" the best course is always to unearth forgotten tablets, if not just plain overlooked history. Newcomers and the young not too far encumbered by dogma are also not that dumb. Or at last they didn't used to be.

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 12:20 p.m.

Having just now read Lisa—a distinction still needs to be made explicit (for all the rest of us) regarding alternative stormwater management: are we talking about sidewalks or curbs or both?

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 12:13 p.m.

Have computer access, but no money for lectures and classes? Run the video HOW PERMACULTURE CAN SAVE HUMANITY AND THE PLANET - BUT NOT CIVILIZATION at Toby Hemeway's http://patternliteracy.com/blogs_articles

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 6:42 p.m.

...."Neighborhoods should demand investment in walkability, whether that’s sidewalks or something even better." OK, I'll bite, what is it? ...."One way to do what (sic) Vldez suggests is traffic calming well beyond what Seattle can imagine...streets where cars are moving so slowly that we don't need to create separate realms ...

Posted Tue, Apr 19, 2:58 p.m.

" Please refrain from personal attacks including name-calling. Those are the types of comments that will be deleted here if they continue." Thanks Michele. Being explicit works!

Posted Sat, Apr 16, 6:48 p.m.

"I’m glad that Crosscut makes a real effort to moderate comments." I too am pleased when authors and editors enter the fray and "moderate." Only a few do though, probably because of a fear of inviting even more "sweeping condemnations" and "militant lack of grounding." Nevertheless, I do not agree ...

Posted Wed, Apr 13, 2:14 p.m.

"O'Brien was asked whether the City Council's frequent denial of zoning requests for more intensive development didn't work against the goal of affordable housing, not to mention the density and carbon neutrality.." I hope the person who asked a question full of so many misconceptions/falsehoods asked it to see how ...

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 9:49 p.m.

Flash! The Democrats decided to face reality and sunset SEPA, retroactive to just prior to Conlin OKing that DEIS. The idea started perking after Dave dropped the beans in the Stranger about this pickle being a "slam dunk." Hunter just explained on KTVW how we can no longer afford to ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 11:13 a.m.

Thanks to the author and Crosscut for looking behind the usual "supply and demand" argument and explaining the emotional component of "expectations" that enters the picture and gets promoted, unintentionally or otherwise, until, like the over-fertilized plant, must be "sustained" at unsustainable costs. BTW, here's a quote (paraphrased) from economist ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 6:13 p.m.

I agree with this author, and others today, there is definitely something bigger— duplicity playing to naivete about who city planning serves is changing the demographics to unthought-out ends. Cities full of the up-and-coming are as unnatural as Keillor's little town "where all the children are above average." Open beaks ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 6:06 p.m.

Option 6: stop assuming Mother Earth is with us, take the silly thing down without loss of life, damage and lawsuits, study the actual consequences and make any amends needed. Of course, if we had done so in the first place, or the Governor had stuck to her word, the ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 2:19 p.m.

Thanks, Knute for raising history. No matter the attempts to dismiss or reinvent it, history remains the best comparative analysis we will ever have. The difference I see this time around is that the two warring parties are but a religious schism for the right to influence, if not control, ...

Posted Tue, Mar 29, 11:13 a.m.

I think the author needs to take another run at what may or may not be troubling Seattle architecture. Curves are not necessary to be pedestrian friendly, which, in theory, is what Seattle says it's now all about. Many, myself included, covet Portland's classic, pedestrian friendly Main Library set substantially ...

Posted Mon, Mar 28, 12:38 p.m.

"will cement Seattle's position" time to change our metaphors—cementing results in major CO2 releases, fast runoff, etc. etc.

Posted Sun, Mar 27, 5:29 p.m.

Because the baby boomers have yet to call attention to the virtues of "mature growth"—getting wiser and wiser, instead of bigger and bigger (or as explained in a more conventional manner by Jon Talton in the Business section of today's Sunday Seattle Times). After shipping well paying jobs out of ...

Posted Mon, Mar 21, 10:27 p.m.

bkochis, I think the COL's point was that when the general rule is to cry wolf, the voters decide not to take it seriously and vote their own desires—sometimes it's smaller classrooms and sometimes it's no new taxes (what the Gov keeps saying she heard).

Posted Fri, Mar 18, 10:50 p.m.

Goals for Seattle 2000, how I miss you. Kids Place II, I can do without—"the wheels on the bus go round and round"— how did that go?

Posted Wed, Mar 16, 4:26 p.m.

Sad to be among those who did not tumble to the rational approach; even sadder that the 9.0 EQ in prepared Japan on top of all the other examples in less prepared places gives those who should know better so little pause. More power to "yokels" brave enough to exclaim: ...

Posted Fri, Mar 11, 5:45 p.m.

Home Economics: Does one keep a large tree leaning toward the house year after year? What if it leans toward a neighbor's house? What if it's a neighbor's house doing the leaning? The voters are kept out of these deals because en masse they avoid wishful thinking and generally enough ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 2:11 p.m.

Today's Seattle Times imagines a time when city dwellers will stop jetting the world and stay home to milk a goat "night and day" and collect duck eggs, in return for feed and full time care. A letter was published yesterday that suggested dealing with the growing p-patch waiting list ...

Posted Sat, Mar 5, 12:25 p.m.

crossrip, "The political leadership here plays dumb about all that. Not enough people both live and work near enough stations to justify the excessive taxing of people for light rail that goes on here." Dumb like a fox this hegemony: sell Product A (20th century rail) to justify Product B ...

Posted Sat, Mar 5, 12:06 p.m.

"Pursue accountability, use data intelligently, set high expectations for schools, and acknowledge that economic and family factors are also important. Pursue educational reform, but don’t turn it into an ideological movement that has The Truth, admits of no questions, and treats (as Barken claims) “philanthropists as royalty.” Thanks for daring ...

Posted Fri, Mar 4, 5:30 p.m.

"Looking ahead, there's another opportunity for local leaders to [g]o cold-turkey on such outsized salaries." "Dick Lilly works for the City of Seattle as a policy advisory with the Solid Waste Utility." Thanks Dick, for this taste of policy analysis (a hot Crosscut topic at the moment).

Posted Fri, Mar 4, 12:06 a.m.

Tooley, While I am on the subject of clarity, this passage of yours is thought provoking—but more so than it needs to be. Prices go both ways, make the connection for "the rest of us." "Talk about subsidies and upzones to keep an area economically vital are always curious - ...

Posted Fri, Mar 4, midnight

Don't know Moon, but I am familiar with the plan she almost sold. It included transit and I-5 work. All or most of that work got dropped when the tunnel took center stage. My guess as to what Moon questions is the EIS assessment of the impact of aggressive tolling ...

Posted Thu, Mar 3, 11:29 p.m.

Oversight and its impostors: " By contrast, the Seattle City Council has a professional and experienced central staff and members can rely on this group’s independent research to confirm or poke holes in assertions made by the executive branch." Alas, the central staff that earned that well deserved reputation has ...

Posted Thu, Mar 3, 11:28 a.m.

Ticker: New poll shows most Americans are not buying Republican sermons on deficits SLATE: Says one analyst: "Out in real America, people want to tax the rich, cut stupid weapons programs, and stop subsidizing prosperous oil companies. They don't want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or education." Wishful thinkers, ...

Posted Thu, Feb 24, 12:47 p.m.

rolls writes: the core shifted north It did that a century ago for the same reason as today: Seattle's geography makes north the van and south the lee. However, those who study cities have noted that all cities have vans and lees, regardless of geography. Seattle's Denny Regrade just got ...

Posted Tue, Feb 22, 5:24 p.m.

Have been out dodging Seattle potholes—more appearing every day. crossrip, No argument here, I totally agree that both of the pass-through elective executive boards are huge mistakes. PSRC is another story for another day, but is far more potent than the Seattle King County Board of Health and sundry other ...

Posted Tue, Feb 22, 11:52 a.m.

Dick, Lack of 20-20 hindsight is one thing. Refusing to learn from the consequences, quite another. crossrip, ST (and PSRC) political appointees ARE accountable. They are hired by and accountable to those we elect and allow to appoint themselves as executive board. Probably, the real source of the problem is ...

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 5:55 p.m.

Showing my age, but jazz, from its beginnings to the 1970s is the golden age that I hope will never die on the air-waves. It's the new classic. Whereas I can get my fill of NPR lots of places on the dial, or so it seems. And the equivalent on ...

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 5:43 p.m.

arties4453 Let's also clue in those who steer the PSRC Vision 2040 and its Transportation counterpart down two tracks getting wider and wider apart. mhays So what does create urban ills?

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 4:22 p.m.

"I live in Pioneer Square and walk to work. ... A friend told me the other day, 'The new wealth in Seattle is the ability to walk to work.' ...spread the wealth. Let's give lots of people, including those New Idea, New Economy folks who are choosing to work in ...

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 4:02 p.m.

"The planets are finally lined up for a renaissance in Seattle's ..., but only if the City Council will provide the legislation..." A familiar line, no matter the economic condition. Those we elect have a very hard time distinguishing between progressivism and industries with stories designed to exacerbate problems and ...

Posted Tue, Feb 15, 5:54 p.m.

Tony is better when he sticks to "religious life and leadership." On the other hand, leaving "urban planning" to experts was never a good idea even prior to the altar(s) referenced herein. As ddmiller aptly commented in a recent Crosscut thread, Seattle's world famous Comprehensive Plan of 1994 promised urban ...

Posted Thu, Feb 10, 12:33 p.m.

g dub, Bremerton happens to be Kitsap's designated mega-city, also the only designated mega-city to actually lose population. Not a public word or thought out of our designated transportation agency—PSRC— about reality intruding on their plans. Do they really not even notice the positive ones you mention?

Posted Wed, Feb 9, 12:33 p.m.

@ woofer: " a rational systemic approach would require a comprehensive transportation plan for the entire Puget Sound region with power to override the separate schemes of countless local agencies and districts. " I assume you know 3/4 of the agency to do this old saw is already set up ...

Posted Mon, Jan 31, 12:07 p.m.

Agree with Miller. Bait and switch is as old as the world famous comprehensive plan aka:"Towards a Sustainable Seattle." The fairer way to preserve local farmland remains that practiced by the PCC Farmland Trust. Reasons are as stated here (note, also, valid reasons for urban protest): http://www.housingforall.org/mallach_calavita_on_land_and_IZ.pdf

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 12:05 p.m.

You raise an interesting aspect, GaryP. When not pontificating on "global issues" legislative bodies sometimes actually take a local action or two based on the widely held convictions and that subjects themselves to what in other spheres is known as learning from first hand experience. We will all learn from ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 11:51 a.m.

An equally valid take on the Sheriff, partisanship and heated rhetoric: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/IBDEditorials.aspx See: "When Incivility is OK" 1/20/11

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 1:09 p.m.

The voice of moderation— it will never fly— ;-) Nonetheless, thanks for this grand wrap-up for a thread about to roll off the screen. You should run for office!

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 4:20 p.m.

So one is to assume that the boring for the tunnel will all (or primarily) occur below the water table at least in the southern reaches?

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 3:19 p.m.

I am unable to find the original publication date of this piece, but the way I read this, the former Seattle office-holder supports the environmental organizations' law suit and ballot measure(s) and the current mayor's take on auto-centric "solutions," including his independent votes at PSRC, but excluding undiplomatic remarks to ...

Posted Sun, Jan 9, 5:32 p.m.

mhays: "having adequate supply does take the scarcity problem away" FYI The last time we lacked a scarcity problem was the Garden of Eden, but we fell from that grace and have been struck ever since with mere economics: "A distinguished British economist named Lionel Robbins gave the classic definition ...

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 1:01 p.m.

R on Beacon: People who live in dense cities have less children ;-)

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 12:56 p.m.

"by building new dense cities where the lower classes would be housed so that the wealthy could create life in separate less crowded spaces where they could live in comfort and move about with freedom" Oops, Kent, has slipped back into yesterday's mantra. This winter, Seattle adopted a new one: ...

Posted Mon, Dec 27, 1:06 p.m.

From 2010 Housing, Human Services and Culture Special Meeting 9/20/2010 Can We Achieve Social Equity Using Smart Growth? http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2291064 does density, and in particular increased supply, equal affordablity? hear entire panel say no at 56:25 see also Councilmember's charts that kick off the meeting

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 5:20 p.m.

Thinking is dangerous, but when Chris started waxing about one receptionist, one PR department,etc., I prayed those putting her up to big combines of departments, commissions, etc. have thought through the logistics so as to avoid another excuse for new remodeling, leasing, furniture, etc. etc. I have not a clue, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 4:48 p.m.

Talk about confusing the issues. The rich and the elite are not necessarily the same, even in the USA. And those who think they know what is best for everyone else are not necessarily rich or elite. The problem, even in a democracy, is that power tends to corrupt. Viva ...

Posted Fri, Dec 10, 7:14 p.m.

Flying a fish from the top of Smith Tower--now there was a businessmen who knew how to thumb his nose, attract attention, and enrich our day. This stuff is so Big Blue and apologists short any ability to make distinctions— between few and many, icons and status. Bottom line: all ...

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 6:06 p.m.

Setting aside all the "I know more than you," a mere innocent slogging there way through this has to wonder if you'd back off from assuming criticism emanating from the extreme you love to hate, you'd see that one "side" is talking about valid stuff that only organized efforts can ...

Posted Sat, Dec 4, 11:11 p.m.

Am I the only one to read the comments first? Thanks guys for a good read.

Posted Fri, Dec 3, 4:35 p.m.

... there's nothing wrong with discussing the ideas he has suggested, even if they’ve been rejected previously. With one "important caveat: there needs to be a thorough analysis of the pros and cons,..." unless you are Mayor McG. LOL

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 11:25 a.m.

Which is it? Quotable Dote too lazy to lift a finger and get anything done or a Go-it-Alone Fixer-Upper? Your back channeling must really be vitriol! Please raise your sights: On the right: Across America, citizens distrust Washington [plus state & local] policymakers because their legislative bills are unreadable and ...

Posted Wed, Nov 24, 1:43 p.m.

Thanks all for a good Crosscut excursion in thought. In making use of late-night government TV to lull the mind to sleep, one comes across School Board meetings. Following several school administrations this way, I find it easy to believe that the Board review of this matter flamed the widespread ...

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 6:50 p.m.

Sorry to see so many falling for growth over urban design, which by the way does not mean "freedom to design in the city." This being so commonly espoused now makes it amazing that wonderful places are still being created. They are! Placemaking's unsung local heros are most likely too ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 8:02 p.m.

From that ultimate ultimate authority of late night, Charlie Rose last night: "All the Devil are Here," McLean & Nocera. The less liberal might be more interested in the one cited in the IBD this morning: the forthcoming: "The Great American Bank Robbery , the Unauthorized Report about what Really ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 12:42 p.m.

Dear Crosscut: Now that you have the attention of sdstarr et al, please ask King County Councilmember Patterson and the Seattle-King County Board of Health to pick up where demographer emeritus Morrill leaves us at the social costs that are actually huge disparities all too easy to dismiss while going ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 5:12 p.m.

I just read the Clicker link to the P. I. story: Has the cost of the city-wide parking studies and the eventual implementation of changing rates been factored into the budget? If not is the real plan to consider it an "unfunded mandate?"

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 5:33 p.m.

" Neither City Light or SPU were ever intended to become a taxing vehicle to support ever growing city government. Yet, that's exactly what the mayor and council appear to have in mind." KK No less than Jean Godden responded to a question on this very issue last night that ...

Posted Mon, Oct 25, 2:15 p.m.

What I read between the lines of this story is: If social engineers were gifted at predicting the future we would all work for the government. I predict it will take a lot more than arm-twisting for that to ever happen in the United States. I most likely will not ...

Posted Mon, Oct 18, 5:56 p.m.

Must also be why the legislature votes out the legal ones after two years.

Posted Thu, Oct 14, 11:20 a.m.

This IS an especially good thread. My thanks go to Djinn for not letting this hubris pass: "...since the invention of agriculture, man has changed the planet to the point that natural processes have been altered and in ever-increasing ways." This assumption rests on the fallacy that humans and their ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 11:49 a.m.

See also "Making Waves" (1995), Ed Wenk Jr., U. W professor emeritus of Engineering and Public Affairs.

Posted Mon, Oct 11, 5:50 p.m.

catowner, What ever happened to "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, OIl and the End of Globalization"? The fact of the matter is that in Feb. of 1975 the Regrade from Denny to Lenora and from Western to Fifth was rezoned Multiple Residence-Mixed Density (base ...

Posted Sat, Oct 9, 11:14 a.m.

1. Crosscut is normally a cut above so much humorless attack the messenger and display superiority. When faced with humor please consider that you might be dealing with a Modest Proposal. I can not tell you off the top of my head the most effective response to that, but I ...

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 10:36 a.m.

" It will have more spending power than any other generation, giving its members the ability to make or break brands simply by paying attention to them." This places an awful lot of faith in "reset" getting us right back to where we left off. Very unlike you Mossback. The ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 4:04 p.m.

stillhope, Re: "here or somewhere else is irrelevant in the big picture" Humans do need to moderate their proliferation, but I agree its more a matter of excess consumption than number of offspring. For instance, the construction industry would not be ruling the roost if we were wiling to call ...

Posted Tue, Sep 7, 11:24 a.m.

Speaking of multiple fiefdoms with the best of intentions, People for Puget Sound (PforPS) is another limiting impact by refusing to go beyond partied assumptions. Even so, those interested in exploring definitive recommendations about land use, need to look behind the doors (links) at the bottom of the page here ...

Posted Thu, Aug 12, 12:19 p.m.

Thanks, Mud Baby and BlueLight for reminding us that the problems industry, aka business-as-usual, has two flanks, not one. Awareness of assumptions and paradoxes, ego withdrawal, and reflection prevent solutions from making problems worse. Humans are capable of sustaining such thoughts—since at least the early 1970s, essential clues have come ...

Posted Thu, Aug 5, 8:20 a.m.

apples and rutabagas—sounds like something Tom Douglas might be interested in giving a whirl.

Posted Tue, Jul 27, 3:47 p.m.

IF you are searching for a real downer, see Mike Davis' Planet of Slums, same issue writ large. Did you walk, bike or ride to Denver?. How's Blueprint Denver coming?

Posted Wed, Jul 7, 6:29 p.m.

For what it is worth, 612,000 people is the annual April 1, 2010 official estimate for Seattle's population per the Washington State Office of Financial Management. http://www.ofm.wa.gov/news/release/2010/100630.asp See bottom of that page for the estimated 2000 to 2010 City, Town, and County populations.

Posted Thu, Jul 1, 10:46 p.m.

Speaking of Animal Farm, the feed lots of today produce waste far in excess of the readily available ground on which to spray it. So, David, you are sure right about one thing, concentrated density of the human variety is not much different. Viable settlement will come in greater variety ...

Posted Tue, Jun 29, 4:15 p.m.

Seattle history buffs are like Bradbury's book people, except history is not as memorable as great literature. So unless one has time and interest to burn in the Seattle Room, the details get more and more scrambled. Too bad too. The Rezone' two rezones noted here were indeed about 10 ...

Posted Mon, Jun 28, 5:59 p.m.

Did you think of it before or after you read this? "There's going to be terrific benefits for everybody, from creating this great downtown-waterfront park and even more than that, it's going to be a great benefit to us in our growth-management strategy. Part of our growth-management strategy to protect ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 8:47 a.m.

"Parking requirements first arose about 50 years ago, as planners began forcing developers to meet minimum parking requirements in apartment buildings and office buildings." Idea for tomorrow's idea of the day: developers forcing planners to meet nationally recognized standards for frequent transit service where Seattle planning assumes it.

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 8:38 a.m.

I have to tell you this all makes me nostalgic for authentic places like Boston before glass boxes, Seattle's working waterfront before the viaduct, and the formative years of Seattle Center festivals. True: you can't go home to again to these places. It's also true that fussing over the appearance ...

Posted Sun, Jun 20, 1:18 p.m.

cocktails42 got me thinking about the approach of the other side of the aisle to issues it disagrees with and to internal disputes. It is more nebulous, something like: stick head in the sand and repeat the same message; don't get mad, get even. Notions like planning for the next ...

Posted Thu, Jun 17, 2:24 p.m.

Cary, Conlin has not changed. You need to keep score of when and where he applies his wisdom. He is very selective. It comes with the territory. All legislative departments grow problems when 1) action is necessary, but not taken, 2) action is taken when it should not be, and ...

Posted Tue, Jun 15, 1:12 p.m.

I am heartened to see a Seattle Councilmember with something more than an End of History state of mind. For a city that supposedly is where the Future begins, City Hall is more and more out to lunch about what Sing Chew has titled the last of his trilogy: Ecological ...

Posted Mon, Jun 14, 5:30 p.m.

Press the Reset Button, David. Doesn't look like anyone else is going to!

Posted Fri, Jun 11, 7:06 p.m.

loren, I was just going to compliment the Rev. on his finest piece of crosscut writing so far. On its own, and because he holds humans responsible, generally leaving out greater powers. For those who don't like to be included in broad-brushes, they can focus on those continuing to entice ...

Posted Tue, Jun 8, 10:44 p.m.

Now Harbor Island is shrinking? Or is that a typo and you meant sinking? That darn Port!

Posted Mon, Jun 7, 12:53 p.m.

Cameron, You are missing something. At least in the urban core, i.e., Seattle, there is a big difference between those who manage to still live there and their representatives. Tit liberalism is nothing new. What is disappointing is Obama's focus on the needs-based community organizing of mentor Alinsky, as opposed ...

Posted Sun, Jun 6, 3 p.m.

Ants can't move a rubber tree plant? That song was written to inspire people to put their common minds to work, as such it clearly identifies the problem. This week, The Week noted that China has begun to switch its population off rice and on to potatoes because of the ...

Posted Fri, Jun 4, 2:44 p.m.

1 sense, Don't miss Chuck Wolfe's account of the last junket of: http://www.i-sustain.com/ The transit first folks will be happy to know those bonding learned that in hindsight it might have been better to do BRT first. Only on Crosscut!

Posted Fri, Jun 4, 2:33 p.m.

Randy, it's even better, you forgot to mention how much the plugging and cleanup will add to the GDP this year!

Posted Thu, Jun 3, 9:16 a.m.

Good last post, mhays. The missing distinction: The "problems" industry makes a good and steady good living because it makes sure, intentionally or otherwise, that the problem addressed persists. This is done by focusing people's attention upon first order change— keep the categories, change the magnitude—add heat to solve cold, ...

Posted Tue, Jun 1, 8:56 p.m.

Time to get serious instead of endlessly arguing over whether proposers needs to prove proposals safe or whether the public must wait for indisputable evidence of the potential harm and it's magnitude. Washington's State Environmental Protection Act describes the situation at hand: the likelihood is not high, but the consequences ...

Posted Tue, Jun 1, 10:19 a.m.

I lot of words to get here: "A private reuse store often pays for some of the materials they sell. There is an entire shadow economy of those who pick up and resell any useful item. It rids our city of junk and pays a meager wage to those who ...

Posted Sun, May 30, 7:09 p.m.

Wells, it's "contextual." But your phrase is otherwise right on. Even so, I must remind you that the old city hall was an abomination from Texas with the only thing NW about it tacked on by someone landscaping the 4th Ave. entrance those "beach" stones set in concrete, plus Tsutakawa's ...

Posted Fri, May 28, 2:17 p.m.

Jean, thanks for the inside dope like the mayor not always riding his bike to work and his ability to hijack a certain elevator, which I assume he fills with his bike. How often, I wonder. This has really set my civic mind to turning: Does the Council share the ...

Posted Thu, May 27, 12:41 a.m.

China is a fine example of jobs above people, culture, nature, you name it. China loves dams. Ironically, the jobs China is after are the same ones we built our dams for--aluminum plants, internet farms. We don't build more because we discovered Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Too bad those who ...

Posted Wed, May 26, 3:36 p.m.

Crosscut chatter is such an oasis of civility that it would be downright boring without a little contention. I'm guessing, but I'd say Crosscut was founded on the conviction that civility is catching, not boorishness. Whether or not that's the case, that's how it seems to work. So hang in ...

Posted Tue, May 25, 6:47 p.m.

Spring Stteet, Ben

Posted Fri, May 21, 11:36 a.m.

Here's an idea. One sure to get our fair Council back on track leading the world to integral consciousness and out of the sweet smelling flowers of arrogance, hypocrisy, not to mention ignorance: "Whereas it would take six planets for all the world to live like a junketing Seattle Councilmember, ...

Posted Wed, May 19, 9:49 p.m.

Seattle along with other booming American cities perhaps does shares some quilt for not relating what was going on at home with similar situations saddling "developing" countries and their citizens with "increased debts incurred for overpriced and poorly planned projects that often provide little benefit to the people or country." ...

Posted Wed, May 19, 1:42 p.m.

Reverse engineer it: the trading of smoke and mirrors supposedly made the mortgages inspired by government directives less risky, the product Seattle developers produced in response was high end condos and low end townhouse packs. Seattle encouraged both through constant zoning amendments and when even that was held to be ...

Posted Mon, May 17, 12:33 p.m.

And Seattle played no role in the "insanity of Wall Street"?

Posted Fri, May 14, 12:04 p.m.

Mulling that one over myself, olydave. In theory, maintenance would be possible with the increased property taxes paid based on the increase in value. In practice, this would require both the developers' new construction to have long term appeal (not lose value) and the planners of new parks, etc. to ...

Posted Thu, May 13, 10:49 p.m.

That last sentence, abcs, is an understatement. The same spoon feeding that Doug reports is familiar to any one "privileged" to serve on an advisory group in the last 20 years. Ironically, It came in with the Growth Management Act. Don't ask me why. I do know that one has ...

Posted Wed, May 12, 4:44 p.m.

We CAN stop degrading the nature of which we are a PART, but as Sarah points out, we are not the least vital to nature's future evolution even though our behavior from well before the invention of agriculture has been largely responsible for nature's evolution to date. The lowly bacteria, ...

Posted Tue, May 11, 6:19 p.m.

A related matter not yet addressed here is that instead of figuring out the next economy—one consistent with stopping the degradation of nature of which we are a part, not apart, the current economy is more than happy to float "sustainable development" atop business as usual, aka there's green in ...

Posted Mon, May 10, 2:41 p.m.

Pepper, You may be too young yet to have been asked by a doctor when you come in with a compliant: "And what have you been doing for it?" And whatever you say, told: "Well, stop that." Or it could be that doctors are less interested in cures than they ...

Posted Sat, May 8, 11:22 p.m.

David, it's all political as well as a place where confusing a clause with a cause or vice versa can cause a whole lot of trouble. You say you are skeptical, but that's not quite how what you have herein written reads. Time to step way way back in order ...

Posted Thu, May 6, 6:22 p.m.

" regardless of whether that legally dubious provision stays in the legislation, in the event of serious overruns the state department of transportation would inevitably turn to the city and say: Shall we share the overruns, find a new source of money, or value-engineer the project back to what we ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 4:22 p.m.

Thanks for all the information with minimal name calling! One question: "Don't have any thing to lose" that means signing it, with or without disclosure of signatures; putting it before the voters; or what?

Posted Sat, May 1, 11:54 a.m.

woofer, Enjoyed your comments, they really stand out! Two thoughts: "the national character" — doesn't that go full circle back to what you say is not the real problem, i. e. arguing over what is and is not "Un-American." "partisan advantage" —also needs dissecting: 1) politicians who see the honor ...

Posted Thu, Apr 29, 12:08 p.m.

You skip over yards. I wonder why. http://www.defensiblespace.com/book.htm

Posted Wed, Apr 28, 4:09 p.m.

"downward spiral"? More like a vicious circle--levies (capital bonds too) put together with no thought of maintenance NG! From what the departing Parks guy said, this problem is far from limited to the Seattle Center--its the rule. Freeways, light rail, SLUT—— the works. Ever cracked the pages of the World ...

Posted Mon, Apr 26, 3:33 p.m.

Another possibility, back seat driver Brewster: One or more of the Council, maybe even at the Mayor's suggestion, dug up a copy of Planet of Slums and did some rereading. Got them to thinking just how lucky they are and about how to refocus. Or, in any case what they ...

Posted Mon, Apr 26, 12:55 a.m.

Good job of skipping the religion and doing some old fashioned reasoning, jmrolls. Much as I hate the AWVs looks and noise, I too have to admit that here too it's no different than housing: the greenest housing is that which already exists. I can also understand that the Mayor ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 3:39 p.m.

And get Gates Sr. as your first signatory. He's perceptive to the needs of the less fortunate.

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 3:11 p.m.

The reason this story is not about Dan Evans? In the early 60s there was only one ecology freak in need of balancing — Rachel Carson. Thank you for pointing out how BOTH parties fell all over themselves to adopt the still current practice of floating the appearance of high ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 6:41 p.m.

oops "when we find we can kick these things around" another vote for post correcting posts

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 6:39 p.m.

Either/or is a red herring. On both sides. The only time humans learn much is in a crisis. That's pretty much all the time for those with the lowest means—I grew up that way, and have to say that car pooling to the U-Dub was a lot of fun even ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 11:32 a.m.

Knute, You are playing to the bleachers here. The topic you start with is a very serious matter and reveals what homework you have been off studying.. Bravo. Then you switch to the tail wagging the dog, as if to get the comments going. Not only that, like Brewster today, ...

Posted Mon, Apr 19, 11:20 a.m.

Could be the Mayor actually read the documents. Could be the Mayor has also spent reading "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, Oil and the End of Globalization," et al on the growing list of serious thought about the next economy, you know the one ...

Posted Sat, Apr 17, 3:48 p.m.

"If one solution doesn't work, the answer is not to push it harder but to look for new approaches." Mega-exploration of economics for a finite planet is the most critical role of government at present. Demanding an effective, consistent message is the proper role of citizens. Ordinary people on both ...

Posted Thu, Apr 15, 7:06 p.m.

serial: denialists abound "Sustainable" to pacify the environmentalists, "development" for the corporations (Orr 1992). That covers the waterfront. Life goes on, less likely human forms, is all.

Posted Sat, Apr 10, 11:21 a.m.

Here's another possibility: ("Waste Please") "Our economy is like a giant happiness machine. Dredgelike, it sucks resources in the front end and spews out waste at the back." Ecological Integrity, Island Press, 2000. Nick shares Kathy Lambert's strong interest in an ecological approach to waste.

Posted Thu, Apr 8, 11:36 a.m.

Vince, i have lost track of which side you are taking, which is not a bad thing. Your comment just following mine above is not clear to me. Are you saying one or more of the EISs are not yet final? Most likely I90s? Are you saying they are and ...

Posted Wed, Apr 7, 6:17 p.m.

There is no price tag in the article for what amounts to a "graded decision." Does this mean that none is yet available, or just sloppy reporting? A graded decision is a decision that retains future options, a choice generally preferable,dependent upon costs. From what IS offered in this article, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 1, 10:49 a.m.

I didn't write this story, I swear.

Posted Tue, Mar 30, 4 p.m.

Or save some trees and if you really need help reasoning out ecological footprints, as opposed to conveniently incomplete rationalizations of carbon offsets, e.g., Seattle Times 3/30/10, Nicole Brodeur, then put your name on the hold list at your branch library and when it comes in walk over and get ...

Posted Sat, Mar 27, 1:03 p.m.

"Seattle is far from a typical city. Consider a few figures: Seattle household size is 2.08, compared to a national average of 2.61. Adults never married amount to 51% of Seattle's population, versus a national average of 30%. Seattle's non-family households (singles, unmarried partners) is 55%, compared to the U.S. ...

Posted Fri, Mar 26, 10:28 a.m.

Ruth Markus: Any winner who is is not, at least privately, saying "Gee, I sure hope this works," did not have the appropriate sense of caution. Put that together with losers having had too much negativity, and citizens have their work cut out for them. Time will tell, folks. None ...

Posted Thu, Mar 25, 11:17 a.m.

" Seattle has long known this secret." If so, those who go are keeping what they learn to themselves. The positive example around here is KC Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who has no equal. Go Kathy!

Posted Thu, Mar 25, 10:59 a.m.

"Did the attorney general know what he was doing when he stirred up the hornets..." David, you ought to recognize the art when you see it, for sure :)

Posted Wed, Mar 24, 10:57 a.m.

Larry, Your house or mine?

Posted Thu, Mar 18, 12:03 p.m.

Good explainer, though.

Posted Thu, Mar 18, 11:59 a.m.

"The recession casts a lot of grand plans into doubt." Glad to hear you say it, but doesn't make it true. True at the moment is more like the opposite even more frantically justified as the way back to "normal." We may know what "is" is, but most a lot ...

Posted Mon, Mar 15, 2:07 p.m.

Back in the days when Mossback and I got our good public educations in Seattle, K-12 was adequately funded by public lands timber AND, I could be wrong, but I do not believe basic education had to compete with Basic Health, etc. If the federal legislators of both parties ever ...

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 9:51 p.m.

I still mourn the Bistro and can taste the swedish cooking of Matt and I forget his spouse's name on I think it was Roosevelt Way. And lunches at Anna Hedeen's on Fifth Avenue south of Union. Prune whip pie is the only name that comes to mind, but again ...

Posted Mon, Mar 8, 4:41 p.m.

Another fine day in the Calvin and Hobb's club house. We will be making headway come the day that 30 plus comments mean more than that!

Posted Sun, Mar 7, 1:34 p.m.

You mean like Comcast's The Speaker is locking the roll-call machine?

Posted Sat, Mar 6, 4:31 p.m.

"ST's financing plan designers are sociopaths. They targeted the most vulnerable people here (“vulnerable” means they lack money to live well)." Strike the financing plan and I do agree. When DB or someone, I've lost track, wrote just think of the Montlake or Capital Hill protest if they had to ...

Posted Fri, Mar 5, 3:17 p.m.

To all young sprats: you are not the only ones who know how to keep yourselves sane with gallows humor. Especially when the straight version is "everywhere the city of enterprise has boomed and busted, partly in consequence, the fate of the underclass has worsened; but strange accompanying trend, the ...

Posted Wed, Mar 3, 6:08 p.m.

Great principle Chuck, but why the Euro-centric example?

Posted Sun, Feb 28, 11:29 a.m.

Vince, you are good. That is the hardest question to answer and I don't have time today, but I did spend an interesting 20 minutes with Google @ "medical savings account." The best short history is at Wikipedia. For some reason. one arrives at an outline where the US story ...

Posted Sat, Feb 27, 7:05 p.m.

Vince, In response to your request, here's some thinking-out-loud, in that it is entirely designers' choice at this point. A Medical Savings Account would not be separate; it would be integral to coverage "purchased however the decision was to fund basic Medicare for more than seniors--say a means tested FICA, ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 7:08 p.m.

Sorry for the double would be and thanks Vince for helping me to see where I need to elaborate.

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 7:06 p.m.

I see this has alas deteriorated. Vince, you may not know how Medical Savings Accounts work because Washington is not one of the states that has activated or allowed them. Sometimes sellers who sell without a realtor will attract a buyer by splitting the would be would-be commission. In the ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 4:33 p.m.

@ Vince "If the R's and the public like simplicity, here it is: Medicare for people above 55, under 25, and buy-in option for everyone else. That would be a three-page bill and could pass under reconciliation." "Taupe and SouthHillConservative, what is your plan or the Republican plan to insure ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 11:20 a.m.

Fly, sorry you got the idea I was not interested in knowing whether your nursery was inside the city limits and organic or at least more sustainable than the construction industry award-winning gardens. I am. I am also interested in whether you feed yourself directly from it as well as ...

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 12:58 p.m.

@Fly I assume you carry on your hobby inside city limits and that it is organic, i.e. actually sustainable, not just called that like the city's award winners from the construction industry who have designed demonstration gardens on midrise/highrise walls and rooftops. If you are the former, you would be ...

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 10:12 a.m.

NAMU LIVES

Posted Wed, Feb 24, 3:47 p.m.

@ turtle "The amount of CO2, pollution for the construction of this cement behometh is overwhelming.The destruction of the west side wetlands is unacceptable. The appearance of the west end lanes is one of paved over landscape." The Seattle contingency of the growth coalition still running the country stops carbon ...

Posted Sat, Feb 20, 12:21 p.m.

From IBD today, another reason it might be useful to cut down of far-seers: "we're asking regulators to do the impossible: see in the present the problems of the future. In that sense, when politicians and commentators complain about regulatory failure, they're in truth paying those who supposedly failed the ...

Posted Thu, Feb 18, 12:05 p.m.

Knute, I was there too—getting my first notions of what "high" culture was all about at and through Seattle's neighborhood public schools. Furthermore, those notions have held true to this day, which makes me more than sad that they are not part of public schooling any more and, worse, will ...

Posted Sun, Feb 14, 3:36 p.m.

Wells votes for invading Olympia.

Posted Fri, Feb 12, 6:46 p.m.

and a fine time was had in the club house by all!

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 9:43 p.m.

". . . the director of finance retained with expanded duties is surely experienced at whole systems accounting" 2/11/10 Correction: “I’m very disappointed by the City’s loss of Dwight [Dively]” said Councilmember Sally Clark. “Dwight is nationally recognized for his work in municipal finance, but he has also always been ...

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 1:06 p.m.

Environmentalists have sure changed over my lifetime. So far, Todd Meyers is the only one of the new crop brave enough to scrutinize the former City administration's consistently selective accountings of its environmental successes. Selective accounting is not accounting at all. That's Todd's main message, or at least the way ...

Posted Mon, Feb 8, 6:13 p.m.

Amen

Posted Sat, Feb 6, 4:27 p.m.

"If Jan's OK with that, she must not live near Mercer." Or moving on to the next best place, a rolling stone gathers no moss!

Posted Thu, Feb 4, 1:05 a.m.

dtstellwagen, mhays: a number of counties bisect Portland. proving hays right about relevancy. So how than is 600,00 people "significantly larger" than 560,000 people, assuming those numbers are correct. "Area" generally refers to geography not people. Is the point that Portland is denser than Seattle or what? Think. Jan: double ...

Posted Wed, Jan 27, 6:39 p.m.

Doing an unbiased poll is not difficult and commonly taught in statistics class. Crosscut could grow citizens by doing some explorative reporting leading to citizens consistently requesting that polls disclose whether they used or didn't use the unbiased methods, until most all do. After that, comes using the polls to ...

Posted Wed, Jan 20, 4:47 p.m.

I can still picture Richard as though it were yesterday. He was memorable and I do agree that he knew his stuff!

Posted Thu, Jan 14, 3:11 p.m.

"We’ve invested too deeply in the notions that towers are power and the dense vertical city is actually a sustainability gesture. (That’s debatable, but a topic for another time.)" Don't wait too long please.

Posted Fri, Dec 11, 4:57 p.m.

Every day I realize I know less and less, but my memory still works. I remember when the property taxes were a tiny fraction of the mortgage and then when the relationship switched. The poor that we may or may not be anti about? For what it is forth, I ...

Posted Thu, Dec 3, 11:34 a.m.

Our Man in Copenhagen: Foreigners to help police UNFCCC summit A report from the scene of this month’s UN climate change conference Jacek Szkudlarek for The Corbett Report 01 December, 2009 ... Danish media are reporting that foreign police forces will help Denmark with security for the upcoming UN summit ...

Posted Tue, Dec 1, 5:29 p.m.

"often supported by people who unknowingly think they are doing the right thing." As opposed to people who knowingly think they are doing the right thing? Glad you put that adjective in front of "protectionism."

Posted Tue, Nov 24, 6:27 p.m.

"...the state wouldn't have channeled enough of those funds to the Nisqually if all the south Puget Sound watershed restoration councils hadn't agreed to let that estuary get money that would otherwise have flowed to their own local projects. “You don't often see that kind of self-sacrifice,” Lombard says. The ...

Posted Wed, Nov 18, 11:31 a.m.

"And solutions? That's the biggest cliche there is. What would you expect people to look for, problems?" One virtue in getting old is increased potential for seeing how often problems are prescribed as solutions. I suppose in that respect one could and should call "solutions" a cliche. But the question ...

Posted Tue, Nov 17, 6:27 p.m.

Sarah, you write well, but stopped short. How then do you settle things? How'd those civil rights activists make your first example for the most part historical?

Posted Tue, Nov 17, 12:27 a.m.

"we'll be condemned to the cutsie silliness of Lesser Seattle" LOL Great City Initiative as Lesser Seattle LOL http://www.greatcity.org/about/leadership-and-donor-base/

Posted Sat, Nov 14, 5:36 p.m.

After all is said and done, I'd say this has measured up pretty well to a rousing Crosscut conversation--no personal attacks on each other (I tune out then and there). As Calvin and Hobbs would say: just another rousing treehouse clubhouse meeting!

Posted Fri, Nov 13, 6:26 p.m.

Bryan, The word that offends you-- probably a simple mistake--although not always the case with Crosscut commenters. But your selection of words is so over-the-top that I'd guessing them a hurried mistake too. Just checking to be sure the new Crosscut didn't hire a nanny. Seriously, if you'd calm down ...

Posted Mon, Nov 9, 2:34 p.m.

light bulb went ON WHEN ...

Posted Mon, Nov 9, 2:32 p.m.

Hey you guys, Knute merely points out that either candidate needs citizen support, a good heart, and the learned wisdom of a sage to wean the Council of retribution and bad coping. Emulating Lincoln sure would not hurt except for declaring war, which may or may not have been avoidable. ...

Posted Fri, Nov 6, 6:31 p.m.

What I like about Crosscut --yes, nobody asked me and yes, I'm a little slow getting into my piggy bank-- is that while the environmental stuff generates the fewest comments, it generally appears in the most clicks column. I envision all you thinkers holding back while you puzzle over the ...

Posted Fri, Nov 6, 12:13 p.m.

My thanks go to Ammons

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 6:16 p.m.

P.S. The controversy in full, at least from the non-modernist point of view is best presented in "Designing Community, Charrettes, Masterplans, and Form-based Codes, David Walters, 2007. Problem is no bumper sticker type understanding emerges even after reading Walters with great care and the book is expensive--why I have had ...

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 6:04 p.m.

Thank you for wading right in without worrying whether you are over your head--the essence of Crosscut! But it's more than that, David. You really have a nose for the heart of the controversy and getting the dialogue going by putting your foot in it. Smart thinking though to first ...

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 10:22 a.m.

FlyintheOintment, Take a strong dose of Thomas Berger and call me in the morning.

Posted Wed, Nov 4, 12:32 p.m.

I assume there is an explanation, but I was astounded to see a TV video on Mon. of people supposedly verifying signatures but actually holding stacks of ballots in one hand fanning through them and leafing through stacks on the table (signature envelopes nowhere in sight). Voice over: no votes ...

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 4:58 p.m.

Cameron, I enjoy hearing from you when you focus more on the merits of what is written. My two cents-- it probably surprises those focused on ganging-up to learn how unusual Washington's growth management act was--the original focus was on managing growth by "sharing" it. I once tabulated all of ...

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 11:50 a.m.

Ah, the purpose of Seattle parks: Into that hopper you must now throw the new planning concept of forcing urban neighborhoods to shift their back yard activities to communal space, e.g. parks. Atop that throw elected planners inability to remember back yards being the site of any valid activity. Brewster, ...

Posted Sun, Nov 1, 3:27 p.m.

The SuperHero that I am most interested in is the one who will channel the urgency you ferreted out in Eugene inward toward enabling greenwashers to see how their tragic waste of precious resources would be better applied to getting on ASAP with least disruptive, most impactful adaptions, including creative ...

Posted Wed, Oct 28, 3:25 p.m.

One or the other highly recommends hibernating over our winters but only after recycling a lot of garbage.

Posted Mon, Oct 26, 4:39 p.m.

" a full integration of its land use, economic development and educational policies "— a scary thought, given the state of the first two items on that list.

Posted Mon, Oct 26, 4:37 p.m.

" a full integration of its land use, economic development and educational policies "— a scary thought, given the state of the first two items on that list.

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 2:59 p.m.

unter: I agree with your argument and didn't mean to be so confusing about the software--I meant that I saw no problem with you asserting that. The other two though are not as far fetched as you imply. Plus yourstands very well on its own assuming your facts are correct. ...

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 9:51 a.m.

Unter: you blow a good argument with your close. Give up on "Jets"--see growing information about implications of return to escalating oil prices along with "recovery." Software--no problem "Start growing produce in our transportation corridors"--if the global future is as dicey as claimed we may well be getting and keeping ...

Posted Mon, Oct 12, 11:25 a.m.

Another coincidence. This just appeared in my email. No date given (love the not free part): New construction in our region often aspires to a high standard of greenness. But the tens of thousands of existing structures not green-built are the vast majority of buildings — and will be for ...

Posted Mon, Oct 12, 11:14 a.m.

Thanks for explaining The Seattle Way in a lot fewer words than KK

Posted Fri, Oct 2, 12:44 p.m.

At risk of branding myself as an old timer, I don't have to imagine what it would be like without the viaduct, I remember it well. We lived in West Seattle, our relatives lived in the old man's old stomping grounds--the North End. He worked on the waterfront all his ...

Posted Thu, Oct 1, 1:27 p.m.

Inspired by Mayoral Issues papers, I'll bet.

Posted Wed, Sep 30, 5:42 p.m.

Reading fast I possibly missed your estimation of where best to apply the lever to pry open the buy-back option. Elaboration, in any case, would be helpful. Please? When the price of oil returns to its steady uptick, local production of all kinds of things will become competitive enough to ...

Posted Mon, Sep 28, 5:43 p.m.

Slipped into a spell of wishful thinking, I see. Peter who shares your last name does not share your opinion of the US now or in the foreseeable future. His latest on this subject as well as the much larger and troublesome one: In Praise of Doubt, How to Have ...

Posted Fri, Sep 25, 10:44 a.m.

A path-finding book just crossed by path quite by accident. Economist Jeff Rubin's "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller--Oil and the End of Globalization, 2009. In fact, Crosscut just waylaid my task of calling it to IBD's attention, who should be aware of it before ...

Posted Fri, Sep 25, 1:03 a.m.

Buildable residential capacity over three times the projected need for the long range planning period suggests something other than Econ 101. http://your.kingcounty.gov/budget/buildland/BLR_Ch5.pdf Wading in on the details makes crosscut commenters a cut above other opportunities to share, knock on wood.

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 9:14 p.m.

This dialogue is the closest to a true dialogue that I have read on Crosscut. It used to be relatively easy to suspend judgment and drag in the pieces of the puzzle. Enough whining. What's exciting is seeing how Kent, Brouhaha and debbalee's pieces fit together. Brouhaha's asute notice of ...

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 8:36 p.m.

David, You must have been thinking about this for weeks because it is so much better than the other you posted this date. Your looking ahead is even more facile than your usual, your reasoning back, full of intrigue though not quite there yet. All the latter needs is continued ...

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 10:17 a.m.

Unter: To be fair, while at that link look at the other incumbents and major candidates. The only clean one in that respect is Licata, who may well be headed for the fate that met Virginia Galle, the last elected with such "clean" support. To Clark's credit she led Seattle's ...

Posted Sat, Sep 12, 10:31 p.m.

Why Steve you shameless plagiarist. You either stole all that from the President or from IBD's demystification of the President, which also shamelessly, excessively closely sticks to the President's line of thinking. Seriously, it I were one tenth as gifted I'd have done it myself after IBD's second drumming on ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 2:59 p.m.

I'm having a hard time grasping why "incentives" are the unmentionable third rail when we are trying to save money, i. e., encourage responsible decision-making and the cat's meow when we are all to happy to give away the store to assure amenities such as affordable housing and working farms.

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 2:23 p.m.

joshuadf Easy to believe what you say is true. In this city, a slip between the cup and the lip almost always takes place in the working out phase after the pros decide they can dispense with further public comment. Which on the west side of Aurora was "make the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 11:44 a.m.

No big mystery in another way too. Allen B. Jacobs, U.C. Berkeley, spelled in all out in 2002, The Boulevard Book--History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards, and before that, Great Streets, and before that, Looking at Cities. All good reads. Even if you disapprove, best to understand who and what ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 11:36 a.m.

It's not all or nothing, black or white. These neighborhoods need weaving back together. All it takes is doing what most households with scarce funding --the bare essentials first, the window dressing if and when funds become available.

Posted Wed, Sep 9, 1:28 p.m.

After reading Mr. Wolfe, I suspect he only skimmed the wonderful book he recommends (Elliott's A Better Way to Zone), or worse read only the blog he linked us to. I urge all those who do care about their communities to acquire the book from Amazon and actually read it ...

Posted Tue, Sep 8, 2:36 p.m.

I like his " conflicting agendas" though. That's a good place to start.

Posted Sun, Sep 6, 12:01 a.m.

No, no, set "compromise" aside for a minute, along with blaming and name calling. The operative word in the essay is "fundamentalism." Give the Professor the benefit of doubt and assume he is concerned with all brands of it. Peter Berger phrases it this way: "The basic fault lines today ...

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 9:48 p.m.

sorry, "amateur night quite refreshing"

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 9:47 p.m.

I find amateur night which refreshing. Not that it's that out of the ordinary either. As Peter Berger reminds us: "I have never been persuaded by those (some on the Left, some on the Right) who have urged that everyone has the obligation to be politically active. It seems to ...

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 6:10 p.m.

Backing politicians into positions is not all its cracked up to be. Some even know that drawing a line in the sand creates impasses, not breaks them. The main reason why citizens talk past each other on urban transport has to do with a little something called Traffic Calming Level ...

Posted Sun, Aug 30, 8:48 p.m.

My Dad would have given anything to do as your former father-in-law. His father, a restless soul, for a brief time sailed solo cross-Sound to work.Got here in the first place by jumping a fishing ship from Norway. But both parents were history by the time my Dad was 14 ...

Posted Fri, Aug 28, 2:55 p.m.

"In 1967 planner and architect Albert Mayer wrote that “Trend is not destiny”. This seemingly simple concept is one which continues to elude a great many people and is in fact the primary rational behind comprehensive planning efforts. That is, to arrest trends deemed socially harmful and promote alternative patterns ...

Posted Fri, Aug 28, 10:49 a.m.

"A special place in the sun" is how a commenter just phrased it on the MacDonald string. And that is exactlythe criteria that should be written into any ADU ordinance so as to protect neighbors who thought they had it. Last time I looked, the protection still was not there. ...

Posted Fri, Aug 28, 12:09 a.m.

LOL over your appeal to authority, Knute, and your reason for writing the piece too.. "Density" is sure some tar baby! The dirty truth about statistics particularly in our region is that institutional memory is long gone, no \body cares much about the other agency's approach or even longitudinal comparison ...

Posted Thu, Aug 27, 9:33 a.m.

sorry for the lack of formating above

Posted Thu, Aug 27, 9:32 a.m.

Art, How about this? The Puget Sound Regional Council has responsibility under federal and state law for transportation planning, economic development and growth management. Guided by planning staff, elected officials from four member counties, 72 cities, and various other agencies conduct a multilayered-layered, rather opaque decision-making process. Recently the Council ...

Posted Wed, Aug 26, 11:15 a.m.

Ben, It's the list of urban villages/urban centers densities that does not make sense and the reason is exactly as Douglas says, although neighborhoods "planning" merely confirmed the village/center boundaries set by the City. For example, it is doubtful that Eastlake understood the full meaning of designating all of Eastlake ...

Posted Tue, Aug 25, 12:47 p.m.

David, It's a good thing that Crosscut is so wonderful and the dialogue almost always worth reading, considering and joining (case in point) because sometimes you write the craziest things. That "firecracker" theory of coming to public judgment? Made my day.

Posted Mon, Aug 24, 11:53 a.m.

Unter @ "His greatest mistake was made in those first weeks when he sacked Jim Diers from the Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle's most effective instrument of deconcentration of power." Definitive account of when and why the tea leaves became clear. Although at the time it was very tempting to believe ...

Posted Sun, Aug 23, 8:41 p.m.

That picture of Greg suffering from too much green? Was funny, but is beginning to turn my stomach. Take it down?

Posted Sat, Aug 22, 4:53 p.m.

1. "Sprawl is not determined by development on greenfield or not, but its pattern. (Oh what does it take to make this clear)" "Smart Growth is devolving into an anti-greenfield-development campaign where the most important thing is to keep urbanism from spreading onto open land. As the thrust of a ...

Posted Thu, Aug 20, 2:47 p.m.

Biff, Assigning Licata/Eyeman the "roads and rails" push caught my eye too. Best not to be so focused on "progress" that one forsakes history. Mixed-up accounts repeated enough have a habit of getting wilder, and if not harmful, certainly as laughable as the results of the telephone game played at ...

Posted Wed, Aug 19, 2:41 p.m.

The greens came out to vote down the bag tax? I need help with the subtlety of your reasoning there.

Posted Tue, Aug 18, 1:50 p.m.

David wrote: "[Uhlman] put together the ruling coalition that Nickels now bestrides: labor, city workers (after the firefighters almost recalled him), downtown property owners and developers, and greens." That last on your list there, David, contains a difference that makes all the difference between history and your recollection. The greens ...

Posted Mon, Aug 17, 12:28 p.m.

I woke up to KUOW interviewing UW people (underwater— might be a first) checking on the roughened concrete panels Seattle had allowed them to place on the Seawall (yes, that Seawall). The stated point of the story was that it it's not just all black (gone-just forget it) or white ...

Posted Sat, Aug 15, 11:18 p.m.

Speaking of soliloquies, this one caused me to sit up straight and glue myself to the TV late the other night: "Population Growth & Political Correctness," a Behind the Headlines segment (as of today) not too far the list at http://www.pbs.org/ttc/headlines_watch.html To The Contrary, to my complete surprise, occasionally sets ...

Posted Tue, Aug 11, 12:21 p.m.

Sar Fruterwise, Good that you slowed down there and caught your bearings. I suspect that if you had read a little slower too, the entire comment could have won Futurewise so many friends that you'd no longer be able to speak for all of them. Alas, I lose my bearings ...

Posted Mon, Aug 10, 6:44 p.m.

I found this helpful and it sent me to googling deeper into "margins" and "marginal." And to pondering why economists don't run for office. "As In The Case Of Supply-Side Economics, Real Health Reform Happens At Margins By DWIGHT R. LEE | Posted Friday, August 07, 2009 4:20 PM PT ...

Posted Thu, Aug 6, 11:15 p.m.

Thank you eddiew! "natural born Seattlites seem to be terrified of it?" Good one, JoeG. Missed out on a C-section--an innate characteristic, i.e., a natural-born sailer--or archaic, having a position by birth? Which did you have in mind? More seriously, in the grand scheme of things it matters little how, ...

Posted Wed, Jul 29, 6:12 p.m.

Taking the time to get it right involves making sure that solutions are not part of the problem. There are a number of reasons that an existing house on a SF zoned Seattle lot has become less and less attainable.. The "math" is complex, even paradoxical. 1. In-city living is ...

Posted Wed, Jul 29, 3:48 p.m.

At the 2nd of the 3 editor's picks: "'The agencies will continue to investigate the costs of the bored tunnel as a future project that could be constructed if the I-5/surface/transit hybrid alternative is agreed upon.' Doesn't this last sentence describe what's happening now? The I-5/surface/transit hybrid has been selected ...

Posted Fri, Jul 10, 10:30 a.m.

Rob K, No rest for the inquisitive, it's one pitfall! Keep 'em coming.

Posted Wed, Jul 8, 9:40 a.m.

Robert, I am charmed by your interest in history in this history-is-dead age. Art, as amateur politician, is correct, but so are you. Politicians are into the next history--the troublesome past is enemy--or at least full of wrongs and lost battles/opportunities.Politicians also have a bad habit of inventing too many ...

Posted Mon, Jul 6, 2:48 p.m.

dbreneman, you have put your finger on why so many citizens oppose an income tax in practice, but wish for one in theory. If Carlyle is serious he will work on removing that bind.

Posted Fri, Jul 3, 10:38 p.m.

The planning profession came into being to administrate "zoning," although it is not that clear which was the chicken and which the egg. At any rate, those of us who grew up in Seattle in the 40s and 50s experienced life before either one had much of a impact on ...

Posted Wed, Jul 1, 8:41 p.m.

"..seeing it is a system that will only work if massive redevelopment takes place in transit corridors, development that will favor big developers and drive up housing price(s).." Massive development takes place (increases the supply of housing, yes?) and this, of course, drives housing prices UP. Knute, I think your ...

Posted Mon, Jun 22, 6:18 p.m.

Seattle has always been a follower, but the Policy Analysts on Council's Central Staff were encouraged to think independently enough to regularly save us from one set of enthusiastic Kids in the Barn after another. Thanks to all of Ted's critics who prompted him to finally spit out what the ...

Posted Sat, Jun 20, 9:05 p.m.

Cameron, it's satire, not humor. When he is good he's great, and when he misses--well think of something else. This one is a keeper!

Posted Sat, Jun 20, 8:57 p.m.

Thanks Bruce. I even think I might agree were I (sigh) presented with all the facts. But here's where Chasan rings a bell with me: "The Partnership didn't have a lot of help. Much of the environmental community is still stuck in an outdated mode of thinking, he says: stop ...

Posted Sat, Jun 20, 8:34 p.m.

As one of Wendell's students, I am sorry I missed the reverse roast. Thanks for your insight, I hardily agree. Some what off topic, but speaking of treasures to keep, I don't see you extolling the virtures of Fire Station 20 slated for on-again-off-again demolition. It's the city's premier example ...

Posted Fri, Jun 19, 8:35 p.m.

Kieth, I can buy your hick, mostly tongue in cheek style here, but on Sound Transit you sound dead serious: "are you blaming Nickels for Sound Transit? that surprises me. I admit it is news to me that Greg Nickels had that much influence" - where you been, off snoozing ...

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 11:37 p.m.

"crush the life out of empathy by squeezing it into a rigid, scolding ideology" just rolls off the pen.

Posted Mon, May 25, 9:31 p.m.

Disconnect: 1. Don't need history, the future will be totally different 2. Explain away overbuilding as: a) increasing supply to regain lost affordability, b) rebuilding mega dense to regain lost affordability, c) being green. Produces Corrective History Lesson: 1. Booms mess up affordability and minds 2. Busts regain affordability at ...

Posted Thu, May 14, 11:03 p.m.

"... simply clarifies what has been the City's informal practice for the last 35 years." R.C . I'm confused. We have not had computers for 35 years and I distinctly remember frequenting not that long ago the Seattle Municipal Library, a City Hall branch of the Public Library, where a ...

Posted Sat, May 9, 12:18 a.m.

"Green developer Greg Smith started the quest off wrong by taking months to decide not to run, freezing out other possible candidates until it was too late." Wrong for which Greg?

Posted Fri, May 1, 9:29 p.m.

Ca Ching

Posted Mon, Apr 27, 6:56 p.m.

Here is something I'd copied 5/23/08 from a comment blog on a James Kunstler article in the Washington Post, saved, rediscovered and reread just yesterday. At the time it must have seemed extreme but with an ominous ring of truth worth filing away? "I also believe that we very well ...

Posted Thu, Apr 16, 11:41 p.m.

What stuck me while reading Doug's fascinating piece and then Richard's comment is how unresponsive "progressives" have become to basic human needs. "Let them eat cake" is no less stupidly haughty today-- people who "can't afford cake do what they have to do, in Marie's day it was off with ...

Posted Wed, Apr 15, 6:13 p.m.

Oh, so, the Mayor and the Council, all of the same (undesignated) party, were merely caucusing? Law and Order joins you in showing how "by-the-books" is not always effective. And your account is quite accurate of how things work when the cost of information is so high that only lobbyists ...

Posted Sat, Apr 11, 11:47 p.m.

Dick (& Art), " In the face of such inescapable pressure, the rational response is to ask ourselves what out there is so special (not sacred, but inspirational, renewing, or unique in the array of landscapes) that we must preserve it, by the only honest and safe way, by buying ...

Posted Thu, Apr 2, 1:50 p.m.

Your story serves as a good response to a story in todays paper trying to make a controversy of providing the homeless with bus tickets to places where they have ties, someone to take them in, or surer opportunities. Thanks, as well, for a good read.

Posted Wed, Mar 25, 9:14 p.m.

Knute, Thanks for keeping on top of this subject. It's time may have finally come. In addition to the Mayor getting into the act, the WSJ took similar note March 6th: "The Firepower of the Lowly Caulk Gun (Jeffery Ball, environmental editor)...U.S. homes commonly waste 30% of the energy they ...

Posted Tue, Mar 24, 9:27 p.m.

Let me get this straight bigyaz. You are not indicting those indicting TypeOne are you? And you are not suggesting that interested citizens be priced and timed out of learning what our employees are doing and thinking on our behalf are you? So what are you saying? I am serious.

Posted Sun, Mar 22, 10:16 p.m.

Wade: "These groups are active in drawing up proposals and manipulating public opinion." The other way of phrasing that is that the legislature has a big job to do and the cost of information is high. Private sources of "sound" research easily tempt legislators to favor concentrated, better organized interests ...

Posted Wed, Mar 18, 11:15 p.m.

This one doesn't even need a shovel, yet as you ably say has "gone missing" when needed the absolute most for but one simple reason--planning author Peter Hall said it best back in 1989: "Thus, indeed, are the ordinary people betrayed by those they trust to run their lives." Keep ...

Posted Wed, Mar 11, 10:22 p.m.

The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123673662900091009.html closed it 3/10/09 article "Downturn Catches Up to Seattle" by Jeff Wingfield as follows: "Some longtime residents believe the downturn is leading locals to urge a rethinking of the city's priorities. In a new book called "Pugetopolis," Seattle writer Knute Berger chronicles a local identity ...

Posted Thu, Mar 5, 8:45 p.m.

Redman you're confusing me, please note "Chris Vance is a political consultant who lives in Auburn, Wash. He was chair of the Republican Party in Washington from 2001-06, a King County Council member from 1994-2001, and a state representative from 1991-93." Seattle is the land of tax loving Democrats that ...

Posted Thu, Mar 5, 1:10 p.m.

The far-seeing urban greens are, well, far seeing again: one day not that long away, cars may well need little if any gas and have much less of a carbon footprint. The best selling justification for declaring cars evil will disappear and a new cost disincentive must make sure that ...

Posted Wed, Mar 4, 5:36 p.m.

As Calvin or Hobbs used to say rolling over and over in a ball of arms, legs, and a tail: "nothing like a good old meeting in the clubhouse!"

Posted Thu, Feb 26, 11:07 p.m.

Berger, take your clue from Joni Balter (ST 2.26.9) . You need to get into cheering on the home team! What's with this reflective thinking? Don't you see how much trouble it gets you into?

Posted Mon, Feb 23, 7:03 p.m.

The City correctly pleads it is merely trying to accommodate the people that successful economic promotion entails,. The new Quality Growth Alliance that claims to have the electeds backs also claims we should not just accommodate growth, we should make it happen!. They don't seem to have heard of the ...

Posted Mon, Feb 23, 6:33 p.m.

Disassemble it and put a few disjointed pieces in stuffy museums????? Ffget it. There is plenty of land is SLU Park. Leave it assembled and "dry dock" it where people can experience life aboard in the elements. I remember well a visit a couple of years ago. It was nice ...

Posted Mon, Feb 23, 1:29 p.m.

"a lot of debatable opinion stated as fact, like the idea that density and growth equal higher cost. In truth, when you add supply, the new supply tends to be more expensive, but the old supply tends to get cheaper." The commenter who shared his version of the truth with ...

Posted Mon, Feb 23, 1:03 a.m.

good advice

Posted Sat, Feb 21, 10:23 p.m.

Naive me, I was kind of hoping that in this day and age the legislature was at least thinking of moving beyond mere intent. Surely, you all don't just count on party line to guide you through the staggeringly long list of bills up for appreciation, sorry, consideration?

Posted Sat, Feb 21, 6:01 p.m.

"guru OF Obama," sorry.

Posted Sat, Feb 21, 5:58 p.m.

Ah "stakeholders." Like most political words suddenly on everyone's lips, it has an interesting beginning and a quite common end--these words all seem to wind up enabling exactly what the concept was invented to preclude. "Transparency" is a less advanced (newer one), so let's stick with "stakeholders." Insightful citizens noticed ...

Posted Wed, Feb 18, 8:52 p.m.

Metro Transit announces 20% cut in service that more than wipes out Transit Now. State legislature's Local Government and Governance committees busy themselves mandating one-size-fits-all -op-down densification at transit stations--reasoning choose one: save the planet, make housing affordable. The fall of the Roman Empire makes a lot more sense to ...

Posted Sun, Feb 1, 8:55 p.m.

Hey, lay off Ted, he's a royal pain for a good reason: The full story is right there on today's Clicker (see Jeff Jarvis, HuffingtonPost) " it shouldn't be declarations of doom that should dominate front pages. It should be questions: How can these companies be this profitable? What is ...

Posted Mon, Jan 26, 5:38 p.m.

debo: "ST convinced TCC, WCV, others in the environmental community, that the effort in 2007-2008 was anti-environment, which is a shame -- because it's not. I'm elected to lead, and I surely do try. But even I am no match for ST's billions of dollar (public money, by the way) ...

Posted Mon, Jan 26, 5:20 p.m.

We don't have a "plan" because we keep looking in the wrong places and waiting for some PAC, Blue Ribbon Panel, or inspired leader to show us the way. The primary mission of state government is to grow citizenship. Forget that and it takes a supreme occasion such as getting ...

Posted Fri, Jan 16, 11:23 a.m.

It is also the first graded decision in the lot. Even as Art says it's still a long way out of these woods, a graded decision gives back the waterfront and does not preclude the I-5/street grid solution that on its own requires cold turkey abandonment of auto orientation. Moon's ...

Posted Mon, Jan 5, 11:35 p.m.

The good thing is that present Councilmembers have had a ready example of what citizens mean when they plead for good policy analysts as opposed to individuals who merely go through the motions, e.g., count the number of studies that reach the same conclusion as a proposal (mystery loves company) ...

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 9:16 p.m.

I too vote for more articles like this. Investor's Business Daily has an interesting story today (Friday) about Jesse Jones, 1930s chair of the Reconstruction Finance Corp who resisted Roosevelt's disposition to use the organization as a grab bag. "Roosevelt asked the FRC to buy the Empire State Building, Jones ...

Posted Sat, Nov 29, 1:33 p.m.

Not to worry. Saving the planet requires keeping the population of small towns and farm communities down and the population of mega cities up. It's also much easier that way to treat the maladies and bad habits (e.g., too much eating, little walking) that come with industrial strength food. Shame ...

Posted Fri, Nov 21, 11:22 a.m.

This account of a report, as well as the report's account of a reality, are map and the territory--not one and the same. I agree that the report now comes very close, more than ever before to being as accurate as a map gets. But this account of it, also ...

Posted Thu, Nov 6, 6:07 p.m.

Germane to this piece and the comments, as well as the "change" our President Elect initially didn't much have in mind--but which is now critical--an outstanding job of reporting appeared late in the election season, accurately billed as opinion primarily because of some labeling words in its lead and close. ...

Posted Mon, Nov 3, 10:06 p.m.

Me too.

Posted Sun, Oct 26, 4:18 p.m.

For the record: The SLUT was an L.I.D.

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 5:51 p.m.

One reason Crosscut should forget Palin: too boring.

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 12:18 a.m.

Why are there NiMBYS? http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wfischel/Papers/00-04.PDF

Posted Thu, Oct 16, 11:09 a.m.

Clicking on John's name at the end of his article takes one to his website where several blogs back he says "In Alinsky's words, 'Self-respect arises only out of people who play an active role in solving their own crises and who are not helpless, passive, puppet-like recipients of private ...

Posted Thu, Oct 9, 6:51 p.m.

RE: great article: I don't think walkability is being used against sidewalk society. It's the stinginess of the sidewalks that are in question. In the not too distant past before the days of "what will you give me if I do that" developers used to outdo each other to use ...

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 7:53 p.m.

Home Economics: Scientists speak up, architects speak up, even lawyers speak up. Don't economists have any interest in educating people that it is not in our best interests to be artificially inflating housing prices. Is the best that can be done the former Fed chair who gave stern warnings, winked ...

Posted Tue, Sep 23, 12:15 p.m.

RE: Not the full story: Your intent is to save us the trouble of reading the professor's findings and judging for ourselves? I don't bite. His book on the salmon is a factual, comprehensive account of where we have been and our fate if we continue. It made me a ...

Posted Wed, Sep 17, 11:44 a.m.

RE: A technical point: See Heather Trim

Posted Thu, Sep 11, 12:22 p.m.

RE: Transparency before density: Don't know if architect Erick Villagomez is the Canadian you had in mind, but he does a great job of explaining the flip side of EcoDensity. The biggest disconnect around here is how we are ever going to get to this form-based code, also referred to ...

Posted Fri, Sep 5, 1:35 p.m.

RE: IF money was no object...: A Modest Proposal, right?

Posted Mon, Aug 18, 9:20 a.m.

more "weird" stuff: Read all about it. "Two urban land-use trends that have not been generally acknowledged will complicate climate change-driven effects in highly urbanized areas unless stormwater managers work closely with planning departments: smart growth and residential "mansionization"... Redevelopment, infill, or home-scaled remodeling in densely populated built-out inner-urban neighborhoods ...

Posted Fri, Aug 15, 10:04 p.m.

transit now or product A?: The question here: should electric trolleys advance trackless technology or revert back to streets full of tracks. The issue driving this question is do citizens want transit now or upzones now along corridors that provide density for rapid transit at some future date. There are ...

Posted Wed, Aug 13, 12:08 p.m.

RE: Nice Launch. Happy Landing.: I was just about to compliment Tooley for leaving his grudges at the door and staying on point when I saw that a faith-based decisionmaker had beat me to it. Buses too crowded to stop for the remainder of their customers is proof positive that ...

Posted Fri, Aug 8, 10:35 a.m.

RE: Great idea, dosn't work: Don, are these family farms we are talking about? If so, you probably have much in common with King County where Transfer of Development Rights inflates the value of farmland at the same time it encourages more of the remainder to disappear into "mitigated" development. ...

Posted Thu, Jul 31, 1:52 p.m.

RE: What regions serve as a model? And costs.: Sorry the taboo link is too long for crosscut: google OegonLive.com Treading on a Taboo, June, 15, 2008. Jack Hart, former managing editor The taboo: "out-of-control population growth will wipe out the gains of the most ambitious conservations programs, here and ...

Posted Wed, Jul 30, 5:19 p.m.

RE: What regions serve as a model? And costs.: Affordable housing is the easy part of the essentials you raise. What's hard to remember in the middle of winning streaks is that the answer has not changed. Where the going gets the toughest is looking political taboos and urban myths ...

Posted Wed, Jul 30, 11:48 a.m.

RE: is growth irrevocable?: Come again?

Posted Wed, Jul 30, 11:41 a.m.

RE: You think that trucks will be running in 2040?: So much for pigs flying! To continue the job of looking ahead and reasoning back: I see walkers with carts, bikers with carts, trackless trolleys and trains, I see local food and goods competing with passengers on the interurbans. Picnics ...

Posted Sat, Jul 12, 2:30 p.m.

RE: Loss of local broadcasting is a big problem: Sorry, too Seattle centric myself. "Big Night Out" appears to be an old fashioned neighborhood talent show held, what seems like, every Friday in Columbia City and televised for all of Seattle's viewing pleasure. Comcast provided "King County" is a study ...

Posted Sat, Jul 12, 12:53 p.m.

RE: Loss of local broadcasting is a big problem: You don't mention Big Night Out. Is this because you don't know about the government channels or because you are so disgusted by the substitution of circus for government, that you change the channel to the County and State who have ...

Posted Fri, Jul 11, 6:27 p.m.

RE: Emergency Interim Controls would give us "Time To Get it Right!: Sorry, copied wrong link and didn't test. OFM's very interesting table that combines actual growth beginning in 1960 with official GMA projections through 2030 is on this page at last listed: 9. County Projections Supplemental Data Tables -Medium ...

Posted Fri, Jul 11, 11:28 a.m.

Emergency Interim Controls would give us "Time To Get it Right!: Bravo Peter, I knew the old man was in there somewhere! But its 1.7 million people over 40 years starting from 2000. Already 8 years in and contrary to plan–you are right about backlash. Seattle's on "target" but the ...

Posted Mon, Jul 7, 8:55 a.m.

Urbane density--Portland's secret: Alas I am wed to Seattle, worts and all, but if anything could draw me to away, it's Portland's Downtown Public Library. The very symbol of Portland's urban greenery, it's also what life there would be like for me. One of those still inviting paths not taken. ...

Posted Tue, Jun 24, 1:31 p.m.

RE: Being the first and out-of-control costs.: Or change the wheels on the toy trolleys.

Posted Tue, Jun 24, 1:23 p.m.

RE: Doesn't $4.50/gallon Gas Change All Bets?: I agree with giving this quiet mind an Editor's Pick The first step to breakthroughs? A quiet mind.

Posted Thu, Jun 19, 10:06 p.m.

sit still save carbon: Next green idea to bite back: carbon footprint checklists for new construction Can't wait to hear what my ex-Detroit car designer, who lives new car to new car, has to say now about all those low mpg gems we've sold off just to get that new ...

Posted Tue, Jun 17, 11 p.m.

RE: RE: Shooting Blanks: "Much of our current sprawl is due to outer counties drawing their boundaries too loosely." Right, and and before you know it non-planning counties will be forced to plan under the GMA to keep folks who can not afford to live in Seattle out of those ...

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 10:41 p.m.

RE: Comparing apples-to-apples: http://www.iere.org/index.html

Posted Mon, Jun 9, 7:34 p.m.

RE: how many were built?: Kieth, you are not making any sense, try again.

Posted Mon, Jun 9, 1:59 p.m.

RE: Which greens?: Alas, it's officialdom. Here's a graphic depiction of the carbon cycle. Here's Seattle's rosy depiction of its carbon footprint. For the footprint of mega urban renewal, see Appendix A, where the line "cement production" (almost equal to light cars and trucks in 2005, not yet a boom ...

Posted Fri, May 9, 11:01 a.m.

RE: Sophomoric: "Nickels represents, whether you like it or not, what the citizens of Seattle have said they want." True and here's the irony. Out of the "process" that officialdom and crosscutters alike say they hate, come most of the great ideas for which Seattle is famous. WTO included. The ...